Score has been the same since Sept 17th, then yesterday, it DROPS!

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

Since Sept 17th, my score with Equifax has been 766.  I've purchased reports between now and then, probably about 1 a month just to see if my score would go up any.  It has stayed the same until I purchased my report yesterday and it dropped 6 points.  I haven't had any late payments, I've used my credit cards occasionally and paid them off.  I have not had any new accounts, inquiries, etc.  In other words, I have not done anything different EXCEPT pay down one credit card that I have a balance on.  (Previous balance was $958.00, made a $400 payment on it.  Remaining balance on that card is $558.00, Credit limit on said card is $8250.00)  I just purchased a new report on Jan 18th and to my dismay, saw my score dropped to 760.  I realize this is still a good score but I can't figure out why my score would go down.  My overall utilization is at 2%. 

My Transunion score went UP from 756 to 759.

My Experian score went UP from 751 to 761.  (This is due to 1 of 2 inquiries falling off my report and Experian was the only one reporting any inquiries)

So why would Equifax drop?  Any ideas? 

[haulingthescoreup]

Compare your 1/18 EQ report to the one before that, and see if anything changed on screen 2, where they list the positives and the negatives. Any new comments, missing comments, or comments switching from positive to negative or vice versa? On this same screen, you might have a comment regarding average and total age. Have either of those figures changed? If this doesn't show on screen 2, the overall age should show on the Credit-at-a-Glance page, over on the right.

If those haven't changed, and overall everything else is the same, you might have to attribute this to the occasional score wanderings that seem to occur in the background. For me, it might have dropped two points; since you're in the mid-to-upper 700's, there's more movement. Pretty lame guesses, I know!

[Anonymous]

The only other thing I can think of is that a beneficial old closed account dropped off your EQ report???

[llecs]

Re-bucketed?

[Anonymous]

Hey again guys, thanks for the replies.  I checked and re-checked to see if there were any differences in the reports, score watch, etc. and I didn't see anything.  The only difference was my overall balance was lower from paying down that one credit card.  None of my other accounts fell off, no inquiries were made, nothing! 

Perhaps IIecs is on to something with the rebucketing (is that a word?  If not, can I patent that??) thing.  Perhaps it's part of the MyFico 2008 we've been hearing/reading about? 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update, usa. I originally didn't think that this was because of re-bucketing; but now, hmmmmmmm.... maybe. Your EX score crossing the 760 barrier may have done it. Looking ahead, when your TU crosses 760, you may see a slight drop with the others?? But I do think after a couple of months, you'll be better off for the re-bucketing.

[Anonymous]

I sure hope so Jay.  I'll be sure to let all know what's going on as events unfold.  Cheers! 

[llecs]

---

usafjay wrote:

Perhaps IIecs is on to something with the rebucketing (is that a word?  If not, can I patent that??) thing.  Perhaps it's part of the MyFico 2008 we've been hearing/reading about? 

---

My fee is low for the use of the word...

Try this...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=10943&view=by_date_as...

[MidnightVoice]

OP - a tiny drop like that can be anything at all!  I lost 6 points for some obscure reason last month, then got them back in two steps for two other obscure reasons!

[haulingthescoreup]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the update, usa. I originally didn't think that this was because of re-bucketing; but now, hmmmmmmm.... maybe. Your EX score crossing the 760 barrier may have done it. Looking ahead, when your TU crosses 760, you may see a slight drop with the others?? But I do think after a couple of months, you'll be better off for the re-bucketing.

---

Re-bucketing isn't triggered by score changes, but by such things as length of credit history, presence or absence of BK's and collections, etc. That's why I asked whether the average or overall age had changed. Every month your average age will creep upwards, and once a year your overall age will go up one. I don't know what the age breaks are, but going from 12 years to 18 by adding on DH's Discover changed my bucket. I got the lovely score alert and everything.

I'm going to be curious to see what happens if FICO 08 ever does start up. It will put me back down at 12 years for EQ and TU, but at 20 years (one lone solitary closed card) with EX. Then I will be in two different buckets, what fun!