A "what if" simulator that can delete negatives? Anyone?

[ztnjpv]

I find the CreditXpert simulator/analyzer so frustrating. I use it at ID Guard. What's so frustrating is I can't simulate the deletion of a negative account. I called them and asked about it and the lady answered me as if I'd asked an illogical or silly question. Whatever.

Part of the ebb and flow of one's score is the potential deletion of tradelines. People CAN do it so I think it should be an option in changing scenarios on the simulator. Sadly, any other even less sophisticated simulator I have seen (FreeCreditReport.com, MyFico, CreditKarma etc.) do not have this feature either.

Anyone know of one?? Googling as lead me in frustrating circles and dead-ends. I can't find one. 

[pizzadude]

I haven't ever seem a credit score simulator that includes this.   And if I did I wouldn't really pay it any attention unless it was a FICO simulator.

Very likely the complexity involved in this type of a simulator would make it very difficult to implement.

[llecs]

I can't comment on the FAKOs offered via IdentityGuard, CreditKarma, et al, other than to say I've had my FAKOs drop and FICO increase for the removal of baddies.

Per FICO scoring, and the simulator, the only option they really give you is paying down the balances vs. deleting. Maybe there's a way to incorporate that into the simulator. I dunno. But there's an entire dynamic involved. If it's a CA, you can probably guess point change when a CA is removed, but if it's the last baddie reporting, I don't see how the simulator can predict rebucketing. You might have a net gain. You could possibly have a net loss. A simulator can't predict that because it hinged on everyone's credit profiles vs. a singular person's.

If it's an OC CO, then it's also difficult to predict due to rebucketing, but there's also the dynamic of age and history, and impact to AAoA to consider. It's very possible to lose points with an old CO being removed. How it reports and when it last updated plays into it too, including util if a CO CC.

At the least, I think an addition would be confusing for the non-FICO knowledgable because of the chance for points dropped, but it would be fun to play around with I suppose.

If you have a baddie about to drop...I can give a free guesstimate, though my success rate is low.

[RobertEG]

The FICO, or any simulator based on proprietary information, does not, and probably never will, go to the level of allowing one to simulate the deletion of one adverse item.

Not because it cant, but because in doing so, it would allow one, with enough inputs, to see the scoring methodology used.

Being a proprietary trade secret, it must be protected by providing information in general enough terms to protect their intellectual property from being reverse engineered.

[ztnjpv]

RobertEG,

That's a valid point about risking reverse engineering BUT the same could be said about the simulation of any factor. Besides, as it stands already, the FICO simulator only gives ranges of scores for any inputs considered. I don't see why this particular option would be more problematic than any other in terms of giving away proprietary info.

[pizzadude]

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@ztnjpv wrote:

RobertEG,

That's a valid point about risking reverse engineering BUT the same could be said about the simulation of any factor. Besides, as it stands already, the FICO simulator only gives ranges of scores for any inputs considered. I don't see why this particular option would be more problematic than any other in terms of giving away proprietary info.

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There are just too many factors involved to implement this.   The FICO simulator, and most others, are designed to give you advice on how to adjust the factors like utilization, etc.. to tweak your current score, based on what is currently on your report.     Removing an account entirely is a scenario that should require a new baseline FICO score to be generated, before you can start the process of fine tuning again with a simulator.

[MattH]

One thing you can try for experimenting with various scenarios is the FICO Score Estimator, which you can find by going to www.bankrate.com and typing FICO estimator into the search box. It makes no use of your actual data, it only uses what you tell it, so it is probably less accurate than a simulator that starts from your actual report and score. But what you can do with the Estimator is try lots of scenarios to get an idea what the impact of some factor might be.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@MattH wrote:
One thing you can try for experimenting with various scenarios is the FICO Score Estimator, which you can find by going to www.bankrate.com and typing FICO estimator into the search box. It makes no use of your actual data, it only uses what you tell it, so it is probably less accurate than a simulator that starts from your actual report and score. But what you can do with the Estimator is try lots of scenarios to get an idea what the impact of some factor might be.

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Dang, you beat me to it. That's exactly what I was about to suggest.

I call the Estimator my FICO Score Time Machine. I can go back in time and pretend that I have no lates.

It's true that it's a lot more general, but it's an interesting indicator.

Put in the info from only ONE credit report. So enter the age of the oldest account on that report, the number of lates on that report, and the number of inqs on that report, not on all of them combined.

[vanillabean]

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@MattH wrote:
One thing you can try for experimenting with various scenarios is the FICO Score Estimator, which you can find by going to www.bankrate.com and typing FICO estimator into the search box. It makes no use of your actual data, it only uses what you tell it, so it is probably less accurate than a simulator that starts from your actual report and score. But what you can do with the Estimator is try lots of scenarios to get an idea what the impact of some factor might be.

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Is there any direct connection to any FICO algorithm though? Sometimes I wonder if FICO's own score report estimator has any such connection. Yes, there's obviously the risk concerning reverse engineering, but when one simple credit card payment puts you outside of the projected range, something is not quite right!

But I certainly see the time machine fascination. That's why I wrote my own little proximator script. Anyone can come up with some sort of estimator, some more accurate than others of course. I did so to get a feel for my FICO scores before I knew about them; it's also handy for having AAoAs etc readily available.