topic Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM in General Credit Topics

I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

paramed3 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:42:59 GMT

I have worked my behind off to get my credit higher and higher. I have about a 750 Depends on Credit Agency. I pay all my cards down to ZERO each month except one. Well this month they all hit zero on my report because I alternate cards and the one with a balance has not reported yet. It dropped by score 11 points cause I paid 3500 in credit cards down to ZERO. IS that bull of what. The balance card should report in a day or two but it will now only bring me back up to where I was. Don't give me the bracket crap I am one bracket off from the top in the Nation so I don't buy that. Everytime I have a complaint with Agencies I get that bracket crap. I tell you it's a scam to keep you doing this and buying scores. I am about to stop pay my bills like I always do keep my utilization under 10% and forget this FICO CHASING. This is stupid for a grown man to do. Waste of money I could be using elsewhere. Its the same ole crap every month some reason it dropped oh oh and by magic when they all report its right back where it was like they did me a favor. I have like 724, 750 and 760 with 3 credit agencies true FICO but that 800 just can't be reached for some reason. All I want is equifax the 724 to hit 760. They are the ones that seem to be the worse at this. I am goind to enjoy life and my credit and stop this non sense of FICO CHASING it really makes no sense. YES pay your bills keep your debt down but to Chase this. NO.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

navigatethis12 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:51:06 GMT

The best thing to do is ignore scores and just make sure the report looks nice. I do think it silly that you're "punished" for not having balances or having "too many". Kind of danged if you do and danged if you don't. I have about six or so cards reporting a balance and the last score I got was 724, but I got a decent limit, so the score is not important. Any person with a brain can look at a report and determine that a person isn't over extending themselves just because a few cards report a balance.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

paramed3 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:06:11 GMT

Its really crazy I have 5 cards total with 15000 in limit and pay all down this month work the entire month to make sure if I charge anything I come home and pay it just to set it up to show one card with 6%, Well the day before the drop my score went up one point then the next day down 11 as the zero hit but last months zero on other card was still showing so all cards have a zero balance. Today or tomorrow the balance card with hit with 150.00 out of 2000. What will I get ? the 11 points back hopefully. I worked on this all month like every month just to see this crap and it just so aint worth it. Not I am not going to forget it but putting this sort of effort in it anymore NOWAY. I am going to keep using them and keep utlization at less than 10 always and forget chasing that score. Its really a scam from the agencies they are like begging you to buy some type of product from them these days and trying to scare you into idenity fraud products.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:10:37 GMT

Don't worry about scores unless you are applying for something. Really that simple. This forum encourages too much behavior in the other direction. Scores and utilization don't matter until you apply, and you can fix utilization-related issues the month before application. The rest of the time, if you don't need to carry a balance, set all your cards to pay in full on payment due date and be done.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

plasectomy — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:02:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Don't worry about scores unless you are applying for something. Really that simple. This forum encourages too much behavior in the other direction. Scores and utilization don't matter until you apply, and you can fix utilization-related issues the month before application. The rest of the time, if you don't need to carry a balance, set all your cards to pay in full on payment due date and be done.

The whole 0% vs 1% utilization score change is the FICO system wanting to make sure you can actively manage debt while in it. Dont think you got tricked. FICO is a business and we're choosing to play their game.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Creditaddict — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:19:01 GMT

I agree with the other poster unless you are getting ready to apply for a mortgage your 720+ is tier 1 with everyone (really pretty much even with mortgages too) so why worry about your score daily... just pay things as you go and you will be just fine.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Leadberry — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:06:32 GMT

@paramed3 wrote:
I have worked my behind off to get my credit higher and higher. I have about a 750 Depends on Credit Agency. I pay all my cards down to ZERO each month except one. Well this month they all hit zero on my report because I alternate cards and the one with a balance has not reported yet. It dropped by score 11 points cause I paid 3500 in credit cards down to ZERO. IS that bull of what. The balance card should report in a day or two but it will now only bring me back up to where I was. Don't give me the bracket crap I am one bracket off from the top in the Nation so I don't buy that. Everytime I have a complaint with Agencies I get that bracket crap. I tell you it's a scam to keep you doing this and buying scores. I am about to stop pay my bills like I always do keep my utilization under 10% and forget this FICO CHASING. This is stupid for a grown man to do. Waste of money I could be using elsewhere. Its the same ole crap every month some reason it dropped oh oh and by magic when they all report its right back where it was like they did me a favor. I have like 724, 750 and 760 with 3 credit agencies true FICO but that 800 just can't be reached for some reason. All I want is equifax the 724 to hit 760. They are the ones that seem to be the worse at this. I am goind to enjoy life and my credit and stop this non sense of FICO CHASING it really makes no sense. YES pay your bills keep your debt down but to Chase this. NO.

Take a deep breath. It's 11 points. Nobody is even going to notice. Life goes on.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Uppingmyscore — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:10:35 GMT

+1 I would drive myself crazy trying to chase after a moving target. Just follow the primary principles and you'll be fine.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

dodgerslv — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:53:42 GMT

@Uppingmyscore wrote:
+1 I would drive myself crazy trying to chase after a moving target. Just follow the primary principles and you'll be fine.

+100

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

azguy13 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:55:52 GMT

@dodgerslv wrote:
@Uppingmyscore wrote:
+1 I would drive myself crazy trying to chase after a moving target. Just follow the primary principles and you'll be fine.
+100

Yea, I don't worry about my score until I am a couple months away from applying for an auto loan. Until then I just PIF and let my AAoA get older.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Uppingmyscore — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:23:29 GMT

@azguy13 wrote:
@dodgerslv wrote:
@Uppingmyscore wrote:
+1 I would drive myself crazy trying to chase after a moving target. Just follow the primary principles and you'll be fine.
+100
Yea, I don't worry about my score until I am a couple months away from applying for an auto loan. Until then I just PIF and let my AAoA get older.

Right on!!!

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

bada_bing — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:59:30 GMT

FICO scoring is intended to be invisible to the people being measured. It is

supposed to measure your credit behavior, not influence your behavior.

Long ago, people became aware that they could "tweak" their scores a bit

by altering trivial parts of their daily credit life. Like tweaking utilization.

Having all cards report zero except one isn't a normal behavior, it's a

behavior intended to influence scores. Getting the short term 10-20 point

bump in scores from tweaking may feel good, but it doesn't really give the

full benefit the score increase might suggest. A 760 profile while scores are

tweaked isn't as strong as a profile that scores 760 just living.

I look at it as a tweaked score isn't natural. The score you have when you

ignore short term FICO effects of your behavior is a better indicator of your

real credit report standing. Lenders have partially compensated for the

tweakability of scores by developing their own proprietary internal scores

and by manual review.

I wouldn't waste my time fussing over scores continuously. I do it when I have

an app I want to do, but realize it doesn't do as much as the raw fico might suggest.

Curiously, mortgages seem to be much more influenced by raw fico score than credit

cards. 95% of the time I let all my statements cut with whatever I spent that month and

PIF on the due date.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

juggalo9er — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:42:43 GMT

@bada_bing wrote:
FICO scoring is intended to be invisible to the people being measured. It is
supposed to measure your credit behavior, not influence your behavior.
Long ago, people became aware that they could "tweak" their scores a bit
by altering trivial parts of their daily credit life. Like tweaking utilization.
Having all cards report zero except one isn't a normal behavior, it's a
behavior intended to influence scores. Getting the short term 10-20 point
bump in scores from tweaking may feel good, but it doesn't really give the
full benefit the score increase might suggest. A 760 profile while scores are
tweaked isn't as strong as a profile that scores 760 just living.

I look at it as a tweaked score isn't natural. The score you have when you
ignore short term FICO effects of your behavior is a better indicator of your
real credit report standing. Lenders have partially compensated for the
tweakability of scores by developing their own proprietary internal scores
and by manual review.

I wouldn't waste my time fussing over scores continuously. I do it when I have
an app I want to do, but realize it doesn't do as much as the raw fico might suggest.
Curiously, mortgages seem to be much more influenced by raw fico score than credit
cards. 95% of the time I let all my statements cut with whatever I spent that month and
PIF on the due date.

+11

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

thom02099 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:45:22 GMT

I, along with others, understand your frustration. Yes, it's a struggle sometimes, and things don't make sense to us mere mortals. However, calling FICO a scam is a bit of a stretch. They aren't scamming anyone.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Imua — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:55:37 GMT

@thom02099 wrote:
I, along with others, understand your frustration. Yes, it's a struggle sometimes, and things don't make sense to us mere mortals. However, calling FICO a scam is a bit of a stretch. They aren't scamming anyone.

agree

one of the things that doesn't make sense to this mere mortal is "things that negatively impact" my score being "balances on 45% on your accts"

never mind that my score is in the 800's, overall util is <3%, and the balances that are reporting are in the <$100 range for $10k CLs...

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

aubie1kenobie2 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 22:35:24 GMT

I obsessed over my score right before I applied for my car loan and spent a great deal of time here trying to learn how to make the score better. Afterwards I really took it easy and not worried about it as much (goal achieved....for now). Well, now the scores actually went up without any huge effort, just paid the cards on time. I believe you should use the knowledge of credit scores to your advantage when you are trying to apply for credit but to do this everyday would be stressful! Having said that, I understand that getting to 760 is easier than getting to 800 from a 760.....sort of like that plateau you get after losing 30+ pounds and that last 5 lbs just wouldn't budge...and I can imagine the frustration.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

ecxpa — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 22:49:18 GMT

Seems to me the FICO score is a small part of the problem. I have 750 fico on TU and 740 of Experian, and I get denied credit because of the number of inquiries and number of accounts having a balance no matter how small the balance is. Balance on number of accounts seems more important to some lenders than others; inquiries also are given different weight by different lenders. It's all a game, that unfortunately most including myself don't understand. Things like late payments from 3-4 years ago still ding not only my score but causes denial of some applications. Fortunately, when I recon and these items are mentioned, I just be honest and tell the CSR that I am rebuilding and letting some balances report to be paid off later to help my credit score and that if they look the late payments occurred 3-4 years ago; I have been successful in most recons not all. I think that letting a balance post one month then zeroing it out the next helps the score. Otherwise how is one going to build a history of on-time payments?

In the end I think I have finally learned that in the credit game you have to focus on a single point........you can choose to focus on building your score by letting some balances report some months, or PIF before the balance posts to keep your utilization down. Which in the end doesn't help if you have not demonstrated that you can manage credit. Having a zero balance on a CC month after month may be interpreted as you are not using the card. Just because you have a balance reporting does not mean you have to pay interest that month as long as you PIF by the due date. At least that is my understanding.

So I don't think the FICO system is a scam really.........but unfair at times and misunderstood. It is common knowledge that how FICO scoring works is a proprietary secret not available to the public. If you get dinged 10 points for something rarely does fixing it give you back 10 points right away. In the end the FICO score is extremely important but a good FICO score does not guarantee approval. There's so much more to this credit thing that meets the eye and one will only understand it by studying and learning how credit works. As soon as you think you have it all figured out..........BOOM....something else comes into play.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

Fico2Go — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 02:07:49 GMT

My FICO went up 31 points today for no particular reason. I was expecting 4 INQs to drop from two years ago so I pulled a CR and score yesterday for comparison.

This morning I went to pull an updated CR and noticed my scores went up 31 pts.

Same Ratio

Same number of accounts with balance

No new inqs

No new accounts

My 4 INQs still on the report and should be off tomorrow.

Has anyone had this happened to them? 31 pt increase for no particular reason?

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

thom02099 — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 04:00:41 GMT

@Fico2Go wrote:
My FICO went up 31 points today for no particular reason. I was expecting 4 INQs to drop from two years ago so I pulled a CR and score yesterday for comparison.
This morning I went to pull an updated CR and noticed my scores went up 31 pts.

Same Ratio
Same number of accounts with balance
No new inqs
No new accounts
My 4 INQs still on the report and should be off tomorrow.

Has anyone had this happened to them? 31 pt increase for no particular reason?

Are you talking about your EQ score? In another post here but a different forum, there was mention that MyFICO had recently changed scoring model for EQ to the Beacon 9.0 or the 08 model. That could account for the score change of 31 points.

Re: I Swear FICO IS A SCAM

paramed3 — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:02:43 GMT

Just like I said they carve 11 points off my SCORES for have zero balance on all cards then the one card post last night with 128.00 out of 2000 CL and here comes the 11 points back. IT'S A SCAM. It really is a scam. Took me a month to set all this up but I forget the one I left is not dues until 24th each month instead of 20th. I was thinking no problem they don't update until end of month but I was wrong. That makes the entire notion of rescoring sort of questionable.

This is a scam to do this to us. We own this information and I can not log into this site or any credit site without be bombarded with ADS on buy this or buy that to improve your score or omg you need this to protect your idenity theives are ready to steal it today.

I am so sick of this. You say don't watch it so close unless you plan to buy something soon. Try 250,000 for 6 acres and two rentals on it.

Yea I am thankful my scores are better. I started at 533 and now way into the mid 700 range but I want all 3 at 760 for the best rates. 760-800 is where I plan to stay the rest of my life. I learned the hard way and I have people tell me now " I don;t need credit I pay cash for everything" yea well I hope you know you will live in a rental if that or a 4000 house the rest of your life. I said we all have to have and need our credit. Its a part of life. I will be glad when in 25 years this scam is over and they have new ways to look at a person and their credit profile for payback on loans. It's coming just no time soon as these agencies have found a way to make billions. Do you think republicians really want abortion to go away ? Heck no that is their primary hot topic to get their stupid base in an uproar at election time. The real threath to americans now are amercians. We are the ones that hurt this country most not others.