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Contradicting information question

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Contradicting information question

When i was scrolling through my recent 3 reports, i noticed under the "factors hurting or helping" that all 3 reports show under the helping section that "balances on bankcard or revolving accounts not to high compared to limits", but then under the hurting section it say "total of all balances on bankcard or revolving too high"

 

Considering the only card i have with a balance is my discover card at about 50% of its CL, and the rest are at 0 balance, i am confused as to what is hurting and what is helping here...any thoughts?

Message 1 of 13
12 REPLIES 12
OmarR
Established Contributor

Re: Contradicting information question

I have zero lates, zero collections, and zero public records (judgements). 100% clean.

 

Yet my FICO 3B report says that "serious delinquencies" are hurting my report. I don't even read those reasons/suggestions anymore.

 EQ=850   EX=845   TU=843       0/24       UTIL=$1    AZEO

Message 2 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question

Interesting....up until recently when i started becomming more and more savy on credit and the like, i used those suggestions as a guideline on what i needed to focus on.  I have a 30 days late back in jan 2015, and i dont get anything about delinquency anymore at all under the factors hurting.

Message 3 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question

We recently had a poster who gained 20-30 points when a 30 day late fell off the report after 7 years, it will definitely affect your score for the full term, although lessen with time.

 

As for utilization, without getting into mix messages, 50% on a single card is what is hurting you, bring that down below 28.9% and you should see some gains.

Message 4 of 13
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Contradicting information question


@Anonymous wrote:

When i was scrolling through my recent 3 reports, i noticed under the "factors hurting or helping" that all 3 reports show under the helping section that "balances on bankcard or revolving accounts not to high compared to limits", but then under the hurting section it say "total of all balances on bankcard or revolving too high"

 

Considering the only card i have with a balance is my discover card at about 50% of its CL, and the rest are at 0 balance, i am confused as to what is hurting and what is helping here...any thoughts?


It's just saying -- in a stupid manner -- that your Discover balance is too high. As @Anonymous observed, if you were to get that one down to the correct percentage, that negative reason code would go away. IMHO that would be 28% or less.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 5 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question

Even though my overall uti is under 8%? Paying that off is no problem, but i was trying to stay at about 8% total uti, thats why i just let it sit for now in preparation of a small spree

Message 6 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question

Even though not as important as aggregate UTI, individual UTI also affects your score, 50% is above 2 known individual UTI scoring thresholds, 48.9% and 28.9%.

 

As for 8%, that number is meaningless from scoring perspective, the final agrregate UTI threshold is 8.9%, you can be at 7%, 2%, .2%, it wouldn't matter scoring wise, though few had reported a lil twitch @ 6%. Either pay down that card below 28.9% or use a card with larger limit for your AZEO if you insist on 8% aggregate.

Message 7 of 13
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Contradicting information question


@Anonymous wrote:

Even though my overall uti is under 8%? Paying that off is no problem, but i was trying to stay at about 8% total uti, thats why i just let it sit for now in preparation of a small spree


Yes.

 

Overall utilization is one thing. Individual card utilization is another.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 8 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question


@Anonymous wrote:

When i was scrolling through my recent 3 reports, i noticed under the "factors hurting or helping" that all 3 reports show under the helping section that "balances on bankcard or revolving accounts not to high compared to limits", but then under the hurting section it say "total of all balances on bankcard or revolving too high"

 

Considering the only card i have with a balance is my discover card at about 50% of its CL, and the rest are at 0 balance, i am confused as to what is hurting and what is helping here...any thoughts?


 

The negative or "hurting" reason statements are the ones to watch.  They are generated directly by the FICO scoring algorithm itself.

 

The positive or "helping" reason statements, in contrast, were created by the people who built the particular credit monitoring service (CMS) that you are using, whether that is Credit Check Total, myFICO Ultimate, Credit Karma, etc.  These people do not know any of the secret details of how the scoring algorithm works.  Rather, these people are guessing how it works and what kinds of things will help your score.

 

Because these two groups of people (the algorithm designers vs. the CMS designers) are completely different it can result in the sets of reason statements being in apparent conflict.

 

But actually, in this case, there is a way to look at them that resolves any apparent contradiction.  Try interpreting them like this.

 

HURTING: CC utilization is too high

*   This means your CC utilization is high enough that you losing some FICO scoring points (compared with a perfect 850).  In your case, that is true because with a 50% utilization you are certainly losing some.  50% is right in between best (1-8%) and worst (90-100%).

 

HELPING: CC utilization is not too high

*   This means your CC utilization is not so high that you losing all of the available FICO scoring points that FICO sets aside for CC utilization.  In your case, that is true because with a 50% utilization you could certainly be doing worse.  50% is helping you compared to 75% or 90% say.

 

A further way to resolve the contradiction (as other folks are observing) is that the HELPING statement may be refering to total utilization and the HURTING statement to individual util.

Message 9 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Contradicting information question


@Anonymous wrote:

Even though my overall uti is under 8%? Paying that off is no problem, but i was trying to stay at about 8% total uti, thats why i just let it sit for now in preparation of a small spree


I've noticed that this is an increasingly common misunderstanding here on the forums.  People think that 8% is a "sweet spot" -- that it will give them a better score than (say) 5% or 2% or 0.1%.  This is untrue.  When you hear people talk about the 8.99% figure, they mean that you want to be sure you are UNDER that.  You do not need, however, to be close to that.

 

This is important because if a person has a total credit limit of 100k (say) then it would entail spending 8k every month to maintain an 8% utilization (or it would require the cardholder to pay interest on 8k each month). 

 

Note, however, that you do not want to pay all cards to $0, which does entail a scoring penalty.  A total balance of $5 is fine, or whatever other amount is convenient.

Message 10 of 13
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