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Score drop?!?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Score drop?!?

I know I'm not supposed to care about Vantage Score. Still, this morning I woke up and checked Wallet Hub and my Vantage Score has dropped 140 points from 718 to 578. Nothing was actually reported as having changed except the score. I actually signed up for my score directly through TU thinking that maybe WalletHub had screwed something up. They too had Vantage at 578. I went to CK where it was still at 718 circa April 2, 2020. I sat for an hour and compared every single line item. The only things I could find were a difference in reporting date on a charge off account that was at a $0 balance. In other words, I paid it off and it reported according to CK on 3/20/20 and then on TU it was all the same exact information except that it said the report date was 4/2/20. That's literally the only difference. One other difference is that my student loans currently in forbearance since the beginning of the year reported on CK as of 2/29/20 and on the new TU report as of 3/31/20 and there was a balance change of $434. But, to be clear, WalletHub was at 718 still yesterday and it had the updated balance change at that time. So while I assume a $400 balance change doesn't lead to 140 point drop, it also makes no sense in that as of yesterday there was no such drop. I know the common response on here is that there is some other change that I am not seeing, but I swear, I studied these things with a magnifying glass and there are no changes that would justify 140 points! What gives?

Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
dragontears
Senior Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?

since the meme here is to ignore vantage scores pretty much no testing is done on what factors have large impacts so I doubt that you will get any answer other than "those are worthless scores, don't pay attention to them".

One thing to note, it has been reported that vantage scores can experience wild swings with no obvious explanation, most that observe big drops get big increases later on. 

Message 2 of 10
Trudy
Valued Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?

+1 dragontears

 

You should be able to pull your updated CK report tomorrow which will show you what changed.

FICO - 8: 05/05/23
Message 3 of 10
Iusedtolurk
Established Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?


@Anonymous wrote:

I know I'm not supposed to care about Vantage Score. Still, this morning I woke up and checked Wallet Hub and my Vantage Score has dropped 140 points from 718 to 578. Nothing was actually reported as having changed except the score. I actually signed up for my score directly through TU thinking that maybe WalletHub had screwed something up. They too had Vantage at 578. I went to CK where it was still at 718 circa April 2, 2020. I sat for an hour and compared every single line item. The only things I could find were a difference in reporting date on a charge off account that was at a $0 balance. In other words, I paid it off and it reported according to CK on 3/20/20 and then on TU it was all the same exact information except that it said the report date was 4/2/20. That's literally the only difference. One other difference is that my student loans currently in forbearance since the beginning of the year reported on CK as of 2/29/20 and on the new TU report as of 3/31/20 and there was a balance change of $434. But, to be clear, WalletHub was at 718 still yesterday and it had the updated balance change at that time. So while I assume a $400 balance change doesn't lead to 140 point drop, it also makes no sense in that as of yesterday there was no such drop. I know the common response on here is that there is some other change that I am not seeing, but I swear, I studied these things with a magnifying glass and there are no changes that would justify 140 points! What gives?


Inquiring minds want to know. Yes it is a consensus that those are Vantage scores and they don't really matter with creditors who deal almost exclusively with Fico scores and Vantage scores are known for wild swings BUT 140 points is really outside of the normal wild swings.

 

Generally with me if my vantage scores go up or down my Fico scores do the same although not as much so I can detect a change when this happens.

 

You will be able to check your CK scores tomorrow and see "WHAT CHANGED" and hopefully get some more insight to what affected the score change.

 

You should definitely get your FICO scores to see where you are actually at with those scores due to the fact they are the scores that will be relied on for any credit considerations.

Message 4 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Score drop?!?

I had the same thought. And I pulled the trigger on the $48 for a new 3B report through My FICO app. I had gotten an update about a week ago already. My FICO scores are fine. No movement whatsoever. So that makes me feel a lot better! But I'm still nervous that something might suddenly pop up on me. 

Message 5 of 10
Trudy
Valued Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?


@Anonymous wrote:

I had the same thought. And I pulled the trigger on the $48 for a new 3B report through My FICO app. I had gotten an update about a week ago already. My FICO scores are fine. No movement whatsoever. So that makes me feel a lot better! But I'm still nervous that something might suddenly pop up on me. 


If you've already seen a change with CK to your TU and/or EQ score than pulling your MyFICO 3B after that change will have the same information on those bureaus with the exception of what happened after your Vantage score drop and when you pulled your FICO 3B (unless there's some glitch with either or both sites). Nothing should be delayed where it "might suddenly pop up" later.  What happened to lower your CK score has already happened on each bureau and won't show up later on FICO scores for the same bureaus.  Now Alerts are notorious for being late and you could pull your 3B report and find changes that have not provided an alert yet for alertable events.

 

With that, it will be interesting to hear back from you what is listed as "what changed".  Although most don't do a lot of testing or research with Vantage it would be interesting to find out why it dropped so much under the Vantage algorithm since it didn't impact your FICO scores in the same way.  This is a common question and could be a Vantage DP that can answer these frequent questions about Vantage that many of us don't know.

FICO - 8: 05/05/23
Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Score drop?!?

More evidence of shenaniganery afoot here with this stupid Vantage score. My Cap One cards give me something called Creditwise. It updated most recently on 4/5/20 with TU Vantage 3.0 score of 718. Ive compared these side by side with this new nonsense 578 Score from today. Literally, the only difference is that TU and Wallet Hub (the source of the 578) have a $384 higher balance for student loans due to capitalized interest being added on. Otherwise, they are I-Dent-ic-al! I've compared every line, every date. The spelling on the names of banks whose inquiries are on there.

 

Now, one other thing: I did send a letter about a week ago to remove some incorrect addresses and misspelled names from the personal info section of the report. I also disputed some student loan late pays from 2013 that AES tells me were an internal error and should hopefully be removed soon. Could the simple fact of asking for verification of an account cause a 140 point drop even with junky Vantage Scores? I'm sorry for letting you all in on my fears and obsession tonight. I'm just so, so, so afraid FICO is also going to plummet 140 points making all of my progress completely not worthwhile. 

Message 7 of 10
KLEXH25
Valued Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?

Outside of a derogatory, if a balance change caused the point drop, you'll easily regain those points. I really wouldn't sweat it. Last year, I had a 67 point drop on Vantage due to some ill timing on a high balance report (65% on my Discover card). I remember freaking out because I was getting ready to come out of the garden for a new card. I paid off the card immediately, but it was too late. Vantage plummeted, but Fico barely budged (my aggregate was only 10%, so it was just the one high balance). It came right back up a few weeks later. It's good to be vigilant, but don't drive yourself crazy lol. 



Message 8 of 10
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: Score drop?!?

$1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 reports at Experian.com or creditchecktotal.com. Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.

Free credit reports (disregard the VantageScore 3.0 score) at:
creditkarma.com for weekly TU and EQ
wallethub.com for daily TU

Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Score drop?!?

Ok. So CK reset and, ok and behold, there was still a 140 point drop for TU. Again, this is only for the Vantage Score. MyFICO is showing me that my real score is unchanged. In any event, for those of you who want the DP on Vantage Score get ready to scratch your heads and be stumped. Here is what changed to cause the 140 point drop: 1) a 2013 charged off account that showed a balance of $389 and that was using 156% of its available credit was removed from my report (this change was in the neutral black type); 2) a 2013 paid off collection account was removed from my report (this change was in the positive green type); 3) a remark meant to make the report more clear was added to my student loan account that says "payment deferred" (this change was in the neutral black type); and 4) my balance for my student loans went up $434 (this change was in the negative red type). That's it. No other changes. I am convinced that this is a scoring glitch inside Vantage, but only as it pertains to TU. Thank God it's not also affecting my FICO scores and all the work I put in there. Incidentally, my EQ on CK went up 17 points to 745 Vantage Score. What's changed you ask? 1) same remark that was added to student loan accounts (which I'm assuming has something to do the virus and that is why it's a neutral item); 2) the same $484 increase in my student loans; and 3) an $85 decrease in the balance on one of my subprime credit cards (First Premier), which brought me from 19% uti on that account to 2%. Again, that's it. That's all the changes and two of those mirror TU, which has the 140 point drop. (The removal of the old charge off and the old collection was not relevant to EQ in that they were never listed on EQ.)

Message 10 of 10
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