topic Re: myfico Is On Drugs! in Understanding FICO® Scoring

myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:52:49 GMT

I was carrying 52%UTIL on my Home Depot card, paid it completely off and it reported this morning and dropped my EX 8 points? WTH??? Are they promoting carrying high balances. I am so over this score crap. My EX went from around 690 to now 610 from too many new accounts, low AAOA and it was too many cards with balances. So, I paid almost all of my cards off to get my score up and this crap happens. There are no baddies of any kind on my report and my scores just keep dropping no matter what I do. Any insight?

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:59:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was carrying 52%UTIL on my Home Depot card, paid it completely off and it reported this morning and dropped my EX 8 points? WTH??? Are they promoting carrying high balances. I am so over this score crap. My EX went from around 690 to now 610 from too many new accounts, low AAOA and it was too many cards with balances. So, I paid almost all of my cards off to get my score up and this crap happens. There are no baddies of any kind on my report and my scores just keep dropping no matter what I do. Any insight?

Your scores will go up because of the lower utilization. This score change is not tied to the alert. Your credit scores are constantly changing but there are only a few events that will trigger an alert, lower utilization being one of them. Your reported score change is not tied to the utilization . This is the same reason people will report score increases due to an inquiry. People assume (understandably) that the the score change is because of the 'event' that caused the alert but that is not always the case.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:07:49 GMT

I don't know what other changes it could have been. No other changes are scheduled to report nor have I apped or added and new accounts (I'm gardening). This is a real bummer.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

takeshi74 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:16:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was carrying 52%UTIL on my Home Depot card, paid it completely off and it reported this morning and dropped my EX 8 points?

As always, you need to carefully compare reports before and after the score change. Do not simply rely on alerts. One's lack of understanding regarding all changes and their total impact does not mean that "FICO is on drugs". You're assuming causality and even without knowing the specifics I can say you're missing one or more things.

Did your account report today or did your reports update today? Keep in mind that these are two different things. The CRA's do not update immediately and generally take several business days from the time that the creditor reports. My guess would be that the utilization change has not reported and other changes caused the drop. However, again, you'd need to look at the report data to confirm.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:17:01 GMT

I really think you have something else disturbing your credit file other than utilization...

Even my EQ didnt bounce like your EX did when a medical snuck its way on there with all other factors remaining static.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:17:31 GMT

As I said above, I have no new accounts as I'm in the garden. I've had this card for a few months. This was the only update scheduled as the next one will be around Sunday.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:19:22 GMT

You'll have to compare the reports. Maybe one of your other cards reported a balance, or had an increase in utilization? There might also be something erronious that happened.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:19:32 GMT

Nixon, I have checked my reports over with a fine tooth comb. There are no negs or baddies at all. The reasons listed above are the factors for my score, according to myfico. Also, all 3 reports give the same information.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:55:55 GMT

The other day my TU dropped 10 points with no real reason given. If you paid it off this morning it would be way too early for the utilization drop to report. In the long-term it should help out immensely.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:01:37 GMT

I paid it off two weeks ago, statement closed last week and updated on EX today. This is how it reads: Balance Change: THD Previous Utilization 52% - New Utilization 0%. Your Experian score has decreased by 8 points.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

kuku4koco — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:24:32 GMT

I also paid off a balance on a cc a few weeks ago with no other activity and my score decreased as well. I was at 26% util now 0%. I don't understand it either.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:28:58 GMT

Well that's why. If you have 0% util that will make your score drop.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

kuku4koco — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:01:11 GMT

Oh... ok.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

MarineVietVet — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:10:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was carrying 52%UTIL on my Home Depot card, paid it completely off and it reported this morning and dropped my EX 8 points? WTH??? Are they promoting carrying high balances. I am so over this score crap. My EX went from around 690 to now 610 from too many new accounts, low AAOA and it was too many cards with balances. So, I paid almost all of my cards off to get my score up and this crap happens. There are no baddies of any kind on my report and my scores just keep dropping no matter what I do. Any insight?

An eight point drop is not unusual or severe. Scores go up and down just about every month.

On our Discover card the score never stays constant. It will go up six points one month and down nine points the next.

Why does this happen? I have no idea.

It's really nothing to be concerned about IMO.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Zorasmiles — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:15:54 GMT

You need to let one card report 1-9% monthly. GL

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:19:24 GMT

I'm just more concerned about the overall picture. My scores have now dropped about 80 points. I thought by paying cards down and off and entering the garden, I would only go up from here but they're still dropping. My Lowes card hasn't reported high UTIL yet so I can only imagine they will drop further. I think I need to step back from myfico and monitoring daily to keep my sanity. I'm literally losing sleep from this. I'm more concerned my current creditors are going to start AA'ING me for the decreases despite not having any baddies. :/

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

tufa4311 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:17:13 GMT

If I underdtand you correctly, and I may not be, you noted the exact reasons why your score has dropped the majority of the 80 points you are referring to:

"My EX went from around 690 to now 610 from too many new accounts, low AAOA and it was too many cards with balances".

So really all we are talking about here is the 8 or so points that the score has dropped *seemingly* for no reason. I say *seemingly* becuase there is a reason, however small it is, we just don't know what it is and that is pretty much by design. Sure, we know the big stuff but if we knew exactly what prompts a score to go up or down a few points here or there we'd have the equations that EX has.

Yes, paying down your cards and thus lowering your util help but I do not think that the drop you see from things like high util are all fully gained when that util is lowered - although this is just conjecture.

Again, I think we are talking about 8 points here - not something to loose your sanity about, and yes, I agree, you could step back from the day to day watch as it is not meant to be a negative drain on your everday life.

Take care of the big things, the UTIL, the new accounts which hurt your AAOA, too many cards reporting too many balances, and let the rest take care of itself.

Thoughts from someone who really doesn't know that much about all this...

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 18:24:17 GMT

Thank you! I have done all I could for now. I have paid almost all cards off, the few with balances are under 20% except for Lowes which will report high this month. But that's okay! I am stepping away and I will just let the scores be. I'm tired of being credit obsessed. Thanks everyone for your input. I will update once my scores start climbing again!

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 17:28:10 GMT

*** Update- So it was my Lowes card that was updated and dropped my EX 8 points. Went from 22%-59%. I'm relieved to know the reason but disappointed in myfico for being so slow to update (decrease was yesterday but it alerted me today that was the actual cause, not HD as per the original alert). It's sad that the free monitoring sites alert you faster.

Re: myfico Is On Drugs!

sarahlee7 — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 22:28:27 GMT

@MarineVietVet wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I was carrying 52%UTIL on my Home Depot card, paid it completely off and it reported this morning and dropped my EX 8 points? WTH??? Are they promoting carrying high balances. I am so over this score crap. My EX went from around 690 to now 610 from too many new accounts, low AAOA and it was too many cards with balances. So, I paid almost all of my cards off to get my score up and this crap happens. There are no baddies of any kind on my report and my scores just keep dropping no matter what I do. Any insight?
An eight point drop is not unusual or severe. Scores go up and down just about every month.

It's really nothing to be concerned about IMO.

Easy to say with trifecta 850's.