Spouse’s Bad Credit Impacting Me?

[Anonymous]

To add to the confusion, I received an email from Citi with a PDF of what I assume is the letter. 

During our review, we saw the following:

   Your credit report shows a lack of recent installment loan information. (True)

   Your credit report shows too many recently opened accounts. (Ok)

   Your credit report shows combined credit lines on satisfactory accounts is too low. (What??) 

It’s goes on to say they pulled EQ and my score was 827, but mentions this particular report is on a scale of 250 - 900. Then it has another reason list:

   Your credit report shows a lack of recent installment loan information. (True)

   Your credit report shows the time since most recent account opening is too short. (Ok) 

   Your credit report shows too many accounts with balances. (1st not enough, now too many?!)

   Your credit report shows too few accounts currently paid as agreed. (EVERYTHING is paid as agreed!!) 

Now I'm more confused then I was originally! If they had simply stated too many accounts, I would've accepted that and not even questioned it. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

To add to the confusion, I received an email from Citi with a PDF of what I assume is the letter. 

During our review, we saw the following:

   Your credit report shows a lack of recent installment loan information. (True)

   Your credit report shows too many recently opened accounts. (Ok)

   Your credit report shows combined credit lines on satisfactory accounts is too low. (What??) 

It’s goes on to say they pulled EQ and my score was 827, but mentions this particular report is on a scale of 250 - 900. Then it has another reason list:

   Your credit report shows a lack of recent installment loan information. (True)

   Your credit report shows the time since most recent account opening is too short. (Ok) 

   Your credit report shows too many accounts with balances. (1st not enough, now too many?!)

   Your credit report shows too few accounts currently paid as agreed. (EVERYTHING is paid as agreed!!) 

Now I'm more confused then I was originally! If they had simply stated too many accounts, I would've accepted that and not even questioned it. 

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@Anonymous The email provided you with a copy of the Adverse Action Notice.  These notices are generally patterned on the disclosure requirements of Regulation B Model Form C-1 (you can Google it to see the format).

The first part of the notice gives you the bank's/lender's reasons for denying your application.  The second part of the notice is the required disclosure when third-party (credit bureau) information is used to make the decision.  This section lists the reason codes provided by the particular credit bureau ranked by order of importance.  Regulation B suggests that four key factors be shown (sometimes five if the number of inquiries is a major reason) so the credit bureaus provide four reasons but in most cases only the top two are applicable.  Also, since the key factors or reason codes provided by the three major credit bureaus differ slightly, they do not always align exactly with the reasons given by the lender in the first section of the notice.

Citi uses Equifax's FICO Bankcard Score 8 which differs from the plain-vanilla FICO Score 8.  The principal difference is the range of the scoring models; the basic FICO Score 8 ranges from 300 - 850 while the Bankcard Score 8 ranges from 250 - 900.

[FalconSteve]

Those reasons are notoriously unreliable. Sadly, the most you can do and be told is to try again when you get the SP message again.

[Anonymous]

So frustrating. It's unreasonable that the scoring systems are so opaque and the reason codes so misleading. If the goal is wiser consumers of credit, along with profitability for banks & retailers, it seems being more transparent would go a long way. I value and have so much respect for those of you who gather, sort, and analyze all of these DPs and then take the time to share it with the rest of us. Thank you from the bottom of my credit frustrated heart. 

I understand expecting consumers to be wise enough to not charge beyond their means, to pay on time, and to fulfill their financial obligations. But when the system feels like a huge "Gotcha!", because most consumers don't  know nitty gritty algorithm factoids...Grrr.

[SouthJamaica]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

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@FalconSteve wrote:

I've worked at a credit union and my Dad currently works at one. He has also worked at several banks and CUs. I double checked with him. Records of outside accounts are govered by multiple federal laws and there Citi is not a credit reporting agency so they cannot keep they records.

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I think @SouthJamaica meant internal records pertaining to their (Citi's) respective accounts, not *all* accounts.

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Yes, thank you That is exactly what I meant

[Anonymous]

I think I will be avoiding Citi forever and seeing if I can get my vanilla USBV PCed to a Cash+.
I will survive...hey, hey. 

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think I will be avoiding Citi forever and seeing if I can get my vanilla USBV PCed to a Cash+.
I will survive...hey, hey. 

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Gloria Gaynor did. So will you 😁

Keep your thread posted on your USB PC✌️

[Anonymous]

I definitely will update. Going to try to remember to call tomorrow when I get the chance. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Small-giraffe was kind enough to post the Citi number that allowed me to check my denial reasons, without having to wait for the 7-10 day letter. 

The second reason they stated was too many recently opened accounts. Understandable. 
The FIRST reason was "lack of recent credit activity". What?  

I have 15 CCs & use almost all of them to varying degrees. I have one sock drawered Amex that I intend to close before the annual fee hits. A few get monthly small auto charges to keep them alive. A few others get bursts of spend every 2-3 months for the same reason. At least 5 are used for monthly spend. 

While I haven't been doing AZEO, I have been PIF, and on most, before the statement cuts. I thought it was helping me, but was it actually harming my profile for new credit? I don't recall ever seeing that denial reason and it didn't stop anyone else from granting me new credit and extending CLI. 

Should I switch to waiting to pay after my statement date on everything? Does that apply to Amex as well? It gets a lot of my monthly spend, but it also has a $25k CL so I have enough room to let it report and still stay under 10%. 

I'm shocked that was the first reason listed.

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If the first reason I got was lack of recent credit activity -- when I had in fact been quite active -- I would try paying one of the accounts after the statement cuts rather than before.

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That's the thing and why it confuses me so much. While I have been PIF on most before the statement cuts, I wasn't on all of them - specifically to let some spend report. I looked through some of it today and I have been routinely letting at least $1500 report. It has reported as 1-2% utilization, depending on source and moment in time. So since I am showing activity, they seem to not believe it's enough activity. If it's not enough activity, how much is enough for Citi? My total CLs are $135k+. 

The too many new accounts I can buy, but the first one seems so odd. That leads me back to still questioning if I'm Citi doomed for life because of internal records of my many years long ties to someone credit undesirable. 

Either way, I'm definitely shifting to letting my accounts all report and paying like a normal credit user who doesn't read here lol. I'm also officially gardening for the foreseeable future. But full confession - I just added one more before locking the door. I used to be an authorized user on his Nordstrom store card. I missed it. Got approved for the Nordy Visa, 10K. 

OK, NOW the door is locked and the gardening begins. I think I better freeze my reports. 

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It wouldn't be the dollar amount. For this purpose $5 would be as good as $1500.

Well here's some detective work for you: were any of the cads reporting a statement balance

(a) store cards,

(b) Chase cards,

(c) US Bank, Vantage West, or DCU cards,

or

(d) credit union cards?

If so, you should know that store cards and credit union cards can sometimes get overlooked by the algorithms, Chase cards report a zero balance whenever they are paid to zero, even mid-cycle, US Bank and DCU report the balance on the 1st of the month regardless of statement date, and Vantage West reports the balance from the 5th of the month regardless of statement date.

What you really need to do is go over the accounts section of your credit report, to see what's reporting what..... and when.

FWIW I don't buy into the meme that paying after the statement cuts is the "natural" and "normal" way to pay. To me that's a "pre-internet" way to pay, since that was the only logical way to do it when we relied on paper statements. It's perfectly fine if you like doing that, but some of us find it more "natural" and "normal" to pay before the statement. I don't even look at my statements. For me, they are old news. They are history.

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Thank you for the super useful information. They make it so complicated!  I don't have any credit union cards, but I do have Chase & USB, and retail cards. In another thread, I just broke down what reported recently by bank & retail CCs. I didn't even realize the info you provided about Chase, USB, etc. 

I agree about "natural" or not to pay before or after the statement date. I do everything by app now and it feels silly to wait for a specific date when I no longer need to wait for a statement in the mail. Since I'm in the apps frequently, I had shifted to paying as it clears - especially with my most frequent use cards, like Amex. 

So what I'm reading is that I need to go over my CCs again and see which ones reporting date (bank cards) are consistent, and pick at least one of those to be my guaranteed reporting card - correct? Would AmexBCP be a good CC for that purpose? 

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Yes Amex BCP would be fine. It's a bank card. And, like most cards, it reports once a month, and the balance it reports is the statement balance.

[Anonymous]

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@FinStar wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think I will be avoiding Citi forever and seeing if I can get my vanilla USBV PCed to a Cash+.
I will survive...hey, hey. 

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Gloria Gaynor did. So will you 😁

Keep your thread posted on your USB PC✌️

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Well that could not have been easier. I don't think it took 2 minutes total. Only asked me to verify my mailing address and my CashPlus is on its way. Wish I had done that a long time ago. If I had, maybe I wouldn't be 5/24 now.   

Thank you for all the help & advise everyone. Citi who?