topic Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting? in General Credit Topics

Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 17:11:50 GMT

Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Ilinferno — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 17:18:52 GMT

What are you using to monitor your reports? Might be worth a deeper dive through annualcreditreport.com to see if there is anything hidden from view.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 17:27:30 GMT

Just tried to get my reports through annual credit report.com but they were experiencing tech difficulties, so I'll try again tomorrow. 🤔 I dunno..

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

FinStar — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 19:19:06 GMT

What was the source of the alert -- which CRA? Was it FICO score-related or Vantage?

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Yasselife — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 19:24:58 GMT

@Anonymous

Are you doing AZEO and paid them all off? Fico or VA?
I experienced this months/yr ago on EX, and couldn't figure out why then got fixed 2-3 months later.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 20:31:58 GMT

The alert I received was from Experian, just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian. I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

jasonbourne84 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 03:27:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The alert I received was from Experian , just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian . I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.

First, definitely take some time to understand the different credit scoring systems (Fico v. Vantage). Vantage scores are extremely volatile and, in the opinion of many of us here on this forum, are not that helpful.

That said, it sounds like this was probably a a FICO decrease since it came from Experian .

Second, the following things seem innocuous and/or are hard to notice if you're not actively looking for them, but are nonetheless among the things that can cause a drop in score. There are more.

0% overall utilization after having just previously carried a small balance (for example, after previously carrying a balance on one card that is 1-3% of your total credit limit).
carrying a balance on more than one revolving account after having just previously carried a balance on only one account.
increasing utilization from increased credit balance (even small increases can be enough).
decrease in credit limit (which is basically the same as increased utilization, but sometimes harder to spot).
deletion of old accounts.
hard pulls/inquiries.
new accounts.
paying off an installment balance if it was your only open installment account.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Oops_I_Did_It_Again — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:08:28 GMT

@jasonbourne84 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The alert I received was from Experian , just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian . I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.
First, definitely take some time to understand the different credit scoring systems (Fico v. Vantage). Vantage scores are extremely volatile and, in the opinion of many of us here on this forum, are not that helpful.

That said, it sounds like this was probably a a FICO decrease since it came from Experian .

Second, the following things seem innocuous and/or are hard to notice if you're not actively looking for them, but are nonetheless among the things that can cause a drop in score. There are more.
0% overall utilization after having just previously carried a small balance (for example, after previously carrying a balance on one card that is 1-3% of your total credit limit).
carrying a balance on more than one revolving account after having just previously carried a balance on only one account.
increasing utilization from increased credit balance (even small increases can be enough).
decrease in credit limit (which is basically the same as increased utilization, but sometimes harder to spot).
deletion of old accounts.
hard pulls/inquiries.
new accounts.
paying off an installment balance if it was your only open installment account.

@Anonymous

I'd add as No. 9 to @jasonbourne84 s list so-called "scorecard reassignment" aka "scorecard jumping". This is obscure but it can cause substantial, mysterious drafts up or down, across the board for Fico 8/9. It's related to re-assignment between one of the 13 (?) internal Fico8/9 scorecards and another, owing to some event that may not be obvious, like a transition across an age of credit boundary.

For example, if your oldest revolving account turns 3 years old you may be transitioned from a thick, clean-credit seeking-young scorecard to a thick-clean, credit seeking-aged scorecard, which, counter intuitively, leaves a dent roughly 25-30 points deep (as always depending on other profile factors), across almost all Fico8/9 scores. That's an example from recent experience. But I imagine various of the other possible reassignments may also cause seemingly mysterious shifts in Fico8/9 scores.

Such events happen relatively infrequently in one's credit journey. But if all other possible causes are ruled out... scorecard reassignment is usually the culprit.

This was pretty throughly hashed out in a Fico scoring thread a while back.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

SouthJamaica — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 15:19:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?

We would need to know what score(s) you're referring to, where you're getting it/them from, and what changes have occurred in your credit reports.

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

SUPERSQUID — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:08:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?

Every alert i get or have ever gotten has the reason for the increase/decrease in it

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

SouthJamaica — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:14:58 GMT

@SUPERSQUID wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?
~~Every~~ No alert i get or have ever gotten has the reason for the increase/decrease in it

There I corrected it for you. The alerts do NOT contain the reasons for the increase/decrease in them. They are not causally related.

MyFICO alerts don't provide reasons for a score change. There are certain events which trigger MyFICO alerts. If there happens to be any difference between your present score at that particular bureau and the previous score reported to you from that bureau, the score change is tacked on to the alert. There is not necessarily any connection at all between the score change and the alert substance.

MyFICO explains this as follows:

Why did my score go up when I got an alert for something negative (or why did my score go down when I got an alert for something positive)?

The short answer: Your FICO® Score may change because of other events not monitored by an alert.

Whenever we send you a credit alert, we also send an updated FICO Score. To ensure you get the most current score, we calculate it based on your entire credit report at that point in time—not just the new information on the alert. This means your new score may reflect other changes that are outside of the things we watch for (see everything we monitor).

Sometimes you may see your score increase when you think it should’ve decreased, and vice-versa, but you’ll always have your most up-to-date and accurate score.
https://support.myfico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038084633

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

SUPERSQUID — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:57:49 GMT

ALERT - CREDIT CHANGE - A NEW INQUIRY WAS ADDED TO YOUR CREDIT REPORT.

Perhaps the fako sites like ck dont give a reason but myfico does

Re: Score keeps dropping but nothing negative reporting?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 16:46:44 GMT

The alert I got was from Experian. It just says the score dropped 20 points