Hey all, Checked my Equifax score the other day after 2 years and was pleased to see it had gone up to 785. I applied for a signature visa card since I am going out of country soon and AmEx isn't as widely accepted. Haven't applied for a loan/credit card/etc/anything in a good 3-4 years (since I got my AmEx) and that Visa app docked me down to 767... I am shocked! Pretty much all the gains in my score that I made over the last few years are now wiped out. 
Would anyone happen to have ideas as to why the drop was so large? From my research I figured it would drop 3-5 points at most as I am a very low credit risk. I am debt free aside from my AmEx bill which I pay in full every month. Thanks for any insight into this! 
Would anyone happen to have ideas as to why the drop was so large? From my research I figured it would drop 3-5 points at most as I am a very low credit risk. I am debt free aside from my AmEx bill which I pay in full every month. Thanks for any insight into this!
767 is still very low risk, so I don't think you need to worry about it. But if you want people to take a stab at it, you're probably going to have to give some more information. For example, what was your average age of accounts before and after the application. What's your length of credit history. Sounds like you have no baddies and this would be your only inquiry, so you're probably just taking a ding from the new account, from the inquiry, and maybe it dropped your AAoA past one of the points where people tend to see a boost.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks Walt, I am inclined to believe your ding theory. Though as it's rare for me to seek new credit I am not too familiar with the intricacies of how dings tend to work. Hopefully it will rebound within the next few months. As for the information you requested: My average age of accounts before the application (3 days ago, on the 6th) was 5 years and my credit history length is 7 years. Not sure how the average age would have changed submitting my application last night.
Let's assume you had 3 accounts before you applied for this new one. And their total age was 15 years. That gives you the average age of 5 years. Now you have four accounts, but still only 15 years total age. So your average reduced to 3.75 yrs or 3 years 9 months. That's going to change depending on how many accounts you have.
Someone else will have to chime in to tell you where the main score jumps are for AAoA.
@Anonymous wrote:
Hey all, Checked my Equifax score the other day after 2 years and was pleased to see it had gone up to 785. I applied for a signature visa card since I am going out of country soon and AmEx isn't as widely accepted. Haven't applied for a loan/credit card/etc/anything in a good 3-4 years (since I got my AmEx) and that Visa app docked me down to 767... I am shocked! Pretty much all the gains in my score that I made over the last few years are now wiped out.
Hi somato!
Welcome - glad you're here and posting.
So both of your Equifax scores were pulled here at myFICO?
And the inquiry is showing but not the new account?
Walt: Okay that makes sense. Thanks again beamMEup: It's all from myFICO, yes. I pulled a report a few days ago and then applied for the new card. The next day I received a Score Watch alert with my new lower score. I haven't pulled a new full report for the updated score.
beamMEup: It's all from myFICO, yes. I pulled a report a few days ago and then applied for the new card. The next day I received a Score Watch alert with my new lower score. I haven't pulled a new full report for the updated score.
