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Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?
What are you using to monitor your reports? Might be worth a deeper dive through annualcreditreport.com to see if there is anything hidden from view.
Just tried to get my reports through annual credit report.com but they were experiencing tech difficulties, so I'll try again tomorrow. 🤔 I dunno..
What was the source of the alert -- which CRA? Was it FICO score-related or Vantage?
The alert I received was from Experian, just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian. I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.
@Anonymous wrote:The alert I received was from Experian , just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian . I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.
First, definitely take some time to understand the different credit scoring systems (Fico v. Vantage). Vantage scores are extremely volatile and, in the opinion of many of us here on this forum, are not that helpful.
That said, it sounds like this was probably a a FICO decrease since it came from Experian .
Second, the following things seem innocuous and/or are hard to notice if you're not actively looking for them, but are nonetheless among the things that can cause a drop in score. There are more.
@jasonbourne84 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:The alert I received was from Experian , just an email saying "your score decreased", but for months it's been little increases here and there. I usually just check my score through Experian . I signed up for Equifax today and they didn't have any alerts or major changes but I saw they use Vantage, I believe.
First, definitely take some time to understand the different credit scoring systems (Fico v. Vantage). Vantage scores are extremely volatile and, in the opinion of many of us here on this forum, are not that helpful.
That said, it sounds like this was probably a a FICO decrease since it came from Experian .
Second, the following things seem innocuous and/or are hard to notice if you're not actively looking for them, but are nonetheless among the things that can cause a drop in score. There are more.
- 0% overall utilization after having just previously carried a small balance (for example, after previously carrying a balance on one card that is 1-3% of your total credit limit).
- carrying a balance on more than one revolving account after having just previously carried a balance on only one account.
- increasing utilization from increased credit balance (even small increases can be enough).
- decrease in credit limit (which is basically the same as increased utilization, but sometimes harder to spot).
- deletion of old accounts.
- hard pulls/inquiries.
- new accounts.
- paying off an installment balance if it was your only open installment account.
@Anonymous
I'd add as No. 9 to @jasonbourne84 s list so-called "scorecard reassignment" aka "scorecard jumping". This is obscure but it can cause substantial, mysterious drafts up or down, across the board for Fico 8/9. It's related to re-assignment between one of the 13 (?) internal Fico8/9 scorecards and another, owing to some event that may not be obvious, like a transition across an age of credit boundary.
For example, if your oldest revolving account turns 3 years old you may be transitioned from a thick, clean-credit seeking-young scorecard to a thick-clean, credit seeking-aged scorecard, which, counter intuitively, leaves a dent roughly 25-30 points deep (as always depending on other profile factors), across almost all Fico8/9 scores. That's an example from recent experience. But I imagine various of the other possible reassignments may also cause seemingly mysterious shifts in Fico8/9 scores.
Such events happen relatively infrequently in one's credit journey. But if all other possible causes are ruled out... scorecard reassignment is usually the culprit.
This was pretty throughly hashed out in a Fico scoring thread a while back.
@Anonymous wrote:Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?
We would need to know what score(s) you're referring to, where you're getting it/them from, and what changes have occurred in your credit reports.
@Anonymous wrote:Yesterday got an alert that my score decreased 20 points, this is the 2nd time this has happened in a few months. All bills and car payment are showing "Exceptional" payment history. I haven't opened any new lines of credit and my utilization is very low. Nothing out of the ordinary, just paying things on time as usual... weird, what's going on?
Every alert i get or have ever gotten has the reason for the increase/decrease in it