40 point drop - not sure if it makes sense?

[vanillabean]

I popped your numbers into my own fico estimator.

CC1 6/2008: balance $166, credit limit $500
CC2 6/2008: balance $333, credit limit $1,000

No inquiries. I assume both limits report.

It spit out 745.

I changed $166 to $17 and $333 to $33.

It spit out 775.

Hauling is right! Something else is going on.

[kwikksilva]

Hmm 775 would be awesome! I have short credit history though... just 2 years 2 months. Balances are at zero now, so basically - guess i need to wait for it to come back.

Will it take more than one cycle to return to where it was? (I think i had an original EQ of around 740 - 4 months ago)

[kwikksilva]

Ok i've looked fully at my ScoreWatch. I only recently signed up so i did NOT notice the "View this alert" page for the drop.

I also just checked my wifes score watch. Hers also has an alert and has dropped from 740 to 691. (Mine went from 709 to 685)

Both of our ScoreWatch indicators show the same reason. An increase from $0 to $360 on a $500 limit credit card. That is the only thing mentioned. My wife is an authorized user on the credit card.

HOWEVER - The card shows up TWICE - same bank (BOFA) - same last 4 digits - same limit - same everything.. And it shows up twice in both our reports.

Basically saying - "2 of your accounts reported balance increases" - but both accounts are identical on each report.

Recently we both had an inquiry for iPhone 4 from AT&T WS. Thats the only other thing thats happened.

Does this sound right?

[llecs]

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@kwikksilva wrote:

Both of our ScoreWatch indicators show the same reason. An increase from $0 to $360 on a $500 limit credit card. That is the only thing mentioned. My wife is an authorized user on the credit card.

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Ignore the reasons. While that CC could be a part of it, SW won't always tell you everything. You'll need to pull your EQ report from somewhere.

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@kwikksilva wrote:

HOWEVER - The card shows up TWICE - same bank (BOFA) - same last 4 digits - same limit - same everything.. And it shows up twice in both our reports. 

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Does it show up twice on your EQ report or does it show up twice in your alerts? There is an alerting issue, because of EQ, where you'll sometimes get double alerts for the same TL. It makes it appear you have two exact TLs. However, if you pull your report, you'll only see one. Now if you pulled your EQ report and you see two, then that can be a source of a score drop if the duplicate account is newer and/or younger than your AAoA and can drop your score if the new TL had a util worse than your overall util (assuming double reporting).

[kwikksilva]

Hi llecs,

Both of us pulled our reports - the account shows up once - in both EQ and TU.

In Score Watch - the account shows up twice within a single alert. (Both of us received the exact same alert - as we share the card)

Still not sure i understand the drop completely though. Especially now my wifes 50 point EQ drop to go with it! (i guess because its due to this card? and we share this card?)

[haulingthescoreup]

The SW alert "reasons" are frequently wrong, if not completely absurd. I sometimes get an alert saying that my score might have dropped because of a new late, and my heart stops, because lates are my only negatives, and I obsess over my payment timetables. SW is going to have to start sending me Valium samples if they keep doing that.

The two account thing happens on Scorewatch because of the flags that we check for alert triggers. You probably checked something like "increase of $50 or more in balance" AND "increase of 10% or more in balance", and so the same increase from $0 to $360 triggered two separate alerts. They keep trying to fix the bug that makes the account appear twice on the myFICO score report, but it keeps popping back up.

But your scores are calculated on your full underlying Equifax report, and as long as the account only appears there once, you aren't being scored on two accounts.

I would pull a report for at least one of you and see if a new negative has appeared, or if they've changed order. The negatives on screen two are the real reason why we have the scores that we do, and saving reports and comparing changes in the negatives from one report to the next is critical to understanding what's happening with our scores over time.

That balance does represent 72% util on the one account. If you have balances reporting on your other cards as well, you might be getting hit for suddenly higher util...

[Anonymous]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:

The two account thing happens on Scorewatch because of the flags that we check for alert triggers. You probably checked something like "increase of $50 or more in balance" AND "increase of 10% or more in balance", and so the same increase from $0 to $360 triggered two separate alerts. They keep trying to fix the bug that makes the account appear twice on the myFICO score report, but it keeps popping back up.

 Yes it does!  I've had this happen a few times to me and after reading one of my posts about it, Barry explained that it was my own alert settings creating what seems to be duplicate alets.......definitely a little confusing.....but what is there about FICO scoring that's NOT confusing>?!?!?

[CreditAble]

The car lease is probably not helping your credit score if you do not have two installment loans of at least two years payment history each. I suspect that your high utility on the credit cards might weigh heavier against you than others. Might be a scoring bucket thing.

 I believe that your score is what is known as a "Fragile A".  The Fragile A is a score that is good even though it is generated by a short thin file. I had a 720 score in my first two years while having two CCs and only one open car loan.  I definitely didn't risk high utility since I was focused on getting the highest score possible.

I have no real proof that a score (with moderate to heavy utilization) will drop more with a short thin file. I definitely would not carry revolving balances without a solid installment loan repayment history. In my opinion, It is possible that you would have higher scores (even with higher cc utility) if you didn't have the lease on your record.

Higher cc balances are definitely riskier if an installment loan is present and no substantial installment repayment history is present. One can pay minimum payments on credit cards and still use the cards for cash flow. Installment loans must be paid without the ability to obtain additional purchasing power for necessities. That could lead to a higher probability of default.

I don't really know if FICO scoring has a way of actually factoring in the short installment loan history situation. Perhaps it is addressed with scoring buckets. 

[kwikksilva]

Thanks for all of the advice guys - i think i'll try and keep the credit cards very low for the next couple of months and see if the score changes. If not - i guess i had better figure out why its dropped so dramatically!

I was also going to try and remove the "secured" option on my $500 credit card - so that i could raise the limit. But BOFA want to so a credit check in order to make that happen. BOFA said they would give me back my $500 - and raise my limit - if they could do a credit check. That would reduce my overall % of usage right?

[kwikksilva]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

The SW alert "reasons" are frequently wrong, if not completely absurd. I sometimes get an alert saying that my score might have dropped because of a new late, and my heart stops, because lates are my only negatives, and I obsess over my payment timetables. SW is going to have to start sending me Valium samples if they keep doing that.

The two account thing happens on Scorewatch because of the flags that we check for alert triggers. You probably checked something like "increase of $50 or more in balance" AND "increase of 10% or more in balance", and so the same increase from $0 to $360 triggered two separate alerts. They keep trying to fix the bug that makes the account appear twice on the myFICO score report, but it keeps popping back up.

But your scores are calculated on your full underlying Equifax report, and as long as the account only appears there once, you aren't being scored on two accounts.

I would pull a report for at least one of you and see if a new negative has appeared, or if they've changed order. The negatives on screen two are the real reason why we have the scores that we do, and saving reports and comparing changes in the negatives from one report to the next is critical to understanding what's happening with our scores over time.

That balance does represent 72% util on the one account. If you have balances reporting on your other cards as well, you might be getting hit for suddenly higher util...

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hauling - you are right - its a bug - i have TWO alerts that would have triggered for my $360 balance. Thanks for the advice!

• Whenever one of your accounts has a balance increase larger than 25%
• Whenever one of your accounts has a balance increase larger than $250