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Amex FICO weirdness

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severine
Contributor

Amex FICO weirdness

Today I received the acceptance letter from AMEX for the BCP. The letter states that my 9/3 FICO score from EX is 782, which is way higher than I would have imagined as usually it's in the 750 range. However the letter goes on to state that the "following key factors contributed to your score....too few accounts currently paid as agreed/proportion of revolving accounts to balances is too high". This seems weird to me because 782 seems like too good of a score to have if the two negative aspects listed were true. All my accounts are paid as agreed and I only gave about a 6% util rate. Then only balance I have is a 29% util on a Discover card. How should I interpret this letter?

Amex PR Gold NPSL | Amex BCP 16.5k| Amex Delta Gold Skymiles 14.9k | Amex BSP 5k | Discover 12.5k | Citi Diamond Preferred 11.9k | Chase Freedom 12k | Chase Sapphire Preferred 12k | US Bank Cash + Visa 13k | BankAmericard Cash Rewards Signature Visa 9.5k | M and T Bank Visa 10.9k | FICO TU 784 EQ 768 EX 784
Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
trumpet-205
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness

I believe AMEX is refering to your Discover utilization. 29% for them is quite high.

Message 2 of 8
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness


@severine wrote:

Today I received the acceptance letter from AMEX for the BCP. The letter states that my 9/3 FICO score from EX is 782, which is way higher than I would have imagined as usually it's in the 750 range. However the letter goes on to state that the "following key factors contributed to your score....too few accounts currently paid as agreed/proportion of revolving accounts to balances is too high". This seems weird to me because 782 seems like too good of a score to have if the two negative aspects listed were true. All my accounts are paid as agreed and I only gave about a 6% util rate. Then only balance I have is a 29% util on a Discover card. How should I interpret this letter?


Ignore the letter, when you have a high credit score they get very picky they have to put something in the reasons. If you had an 850 FICO they would still put a couple reasons why its not good enough. When you are approved the only good thing about that letter is you get the score and a free pull of your credit report. 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 3 of 8
jsucool76
Super Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness

Some lenders also sometimes put "Key factors that contribute to your credit score," but they don't necessarily relate to you. They'll just write that a lot of inquiries, high utilizations, and stuff like that are bad for your score, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily fall into any of those categories. 

Message 4 of 8
Cdnewmanpac
Established Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness

When a credit issuer declines someone or gives less than the best terms, they are now legally obligated to provide reasons. All companies that I'm aware of have gone to an automated system to generate these "reason codes", thus meeting the legal obligation. On the theory that it is better to be safe than sorry, most issuers send one of these disclosure forms even if you get the best terms. The only one I know who doesn't is Amex for their charge products. So the computer HAS TO generate at least 2 reason codes. Thus, "too few accounts paid as agreed" doesn't mean there are ANY accounts that ARENT paid as agreed. It just means you have only a few accounts, period. You should only pay attention to these codes if you are declined and/or get a high interest rate. Even then, it is usually only the first listed reason that had any impact. In the case of Amex, their reasons may not even be related to your fico data.

In wallet: Ink Plus 10k, AMEX TE 25k. In bag: CSP 16k, USAA WMC 15k, Hyatt 13k, United MPE 12k, AMEX HHonors 3k. In SD: Cap 1 QS 5k, Discover IT 7k. FICO 08 says my EQ is now 844, was 510 in 2010.
Message 5 of 8
severine
Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness

Thanks for your answers, makes sense!

Amex PR Gold NPSL | Amex BCP 16.5k| Amex Delta Gold Skymiles 14.9k | Amex BSP 5k | Discover 12.5k | Citi Diamond Preferred 11.9k | Chase Freedom 12k | Chase Sapphire Preferred 12k | US Bank Cash + Visa 13k | BankAmericard Cash Rewards Signature Visa 9.5k | M and T Bank Visa 10.9k | FICO TU 784 EQ 768 EX 784
Message 6 of 8
stan_the_man
Established Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness


@jamesdwi wrote:

@severine wrote:

Today I received the acceptance letter from AMEX for the BCP. The letter states that my 9/3 FICO score from EX is 782, which is way higher than I would have imagined as usually it's in the 750 range. However the letter goes on to state that the "following key factors contributed to your score....too few accounts currently paid as agreed/proportion of revolving accounts to balances is too high". This seems weird to me because 782 seems like too good of a score to have if the two negative aspects listed were true. All my accounts are paid as agreed and I only gave about a 6% util rate. Then only balance I have is a 29% util on a Discover card. How should I interpret this letter?


Ignore the letter, when you have a high credit score they get very picky they have to put something in the reasons. If you had an 850 FICO they would still put a couple reasons why its not good enough. When you are approved the only good thing about that letter is you get the score and a free pull of your credit report. 


I agree that when scores get high enough the negative reasons can get downright ridiculous, but at a certain point -- usually over 800 -- you stop getting negative Fico reasons. I checked my past reports, and my 805 (EQ) from 9/2011 and 805 (EQ) from 1/2011 has no negative reasons and four positive reasons. Most of my reports above 785 (EQ and TU) only list one negative reason -- including the 799 (EQ) from 7/2010.

Message 7 of 8
-Cain-
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex FICO weirdness

AmEx may use a CC-enhanced FICO. The score they gave me was higher than my monthly PSECU score, which I believe is the Classic FICO.

Message 8 of 8
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