Utilization's HUGE impact.

[Exonumist]

So I got a letter from Capital One today from a cli request. They denied because I've had one within the last six months, but my question has more to do with utilization. The score they gave me was only a 680 on EQ. That's such a huge score difference that at first I was afraid something might be going on with my report. I just checked and it's fine. They used an old soft pull from May when I had about  17% utilization and my Freedom had just reported. Before now all the scores I have gotten have been with very low utilization (under 5%). Is it really making that huge of a difference in my score or are they just not using a FICO score? If it weren't $20 I would just buy one on here to verify. The 724 in my sig is pretty old. It's really confusing as every other lender that has sent me a score for whatever reason has been around 750. If it is a FICO why such a huge difference just over utilization? Especially when it's under 20%.

[Anonymous]

Until you have your FICO score in front of you, it will be hard to determine what is going on. My Credit Karma consistently shows a much lower score than My FICo Transunion. A 41 point difference. Whatever credit reporting agency you are basing your score on could be somewhat different than your FICO score that Capitol One is using.

[pizzadude]

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@Default4 wrote:

So I got a letter from Capital One today from a cli request. They denied because I've had one within the last six months, but my question has more to do with utilization. The score they gave me was only a 680 on EQ. That's such a huge score difference that at first I was afraid something might be going on with my report. I just checked and it's fine. They used an old soft pull from May when I had about  17% utilization and my Freedom had just reported. Before now all the scores I have gotten have been with very low utilization (under 5%). Is it really making that huge of a difference in my score or are they just not using a FICO score? If it weren't $20 I would just buy one on here to verify. The 724 in my sig is pretty old. It's really confusing as every other lender that has sent me a score for whatever reason has been around 750. If it is a FICO why such a huge difference just over utilization? Especially when it's under 20%.

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Did the letter from Cap1 explicitly state that the score was a FICO score, and did it have a scoring range?

[kroberts67]

I was told by a rep there that if they have a score form the last 60 days, they will use that.  I have yet to see them use a current score for me.  I'm waiting over 60 days for the next request so I'm assured they pull a new one.  They've always been matching my FICO to the mark (although always old scores).

[Exonumist]

It does not specify that it's a Fico, but it is a range of 300-850. All that it has is the source as Equifax Information Services. I just can't believe that 17% utilization over a couple of cards would have that much of an impact.