Account going from Dormant to Active worth 20 points?

[Anonymous]

I used my Lowes card for the first time in 3 years last week (for $56) and a couple of days later received an alert from Experian saying "Dormant SYNCB/LOWES Retail Card is Now Active". Next day I received another Experian alert saying "Your FICO Score has increased by 20 points." Was great to see as my score took about a 22 point hit based in new inq and new accounts.

All CC's listed in my sig are new since 4/19/18 except for Capital One and Lowes which are 5 and 3 years old, respectively. Only other change since 4/19 was closing Barclaycard.

Can a dormant account have that much impact?

[Anonymous]

I certainly wouldn't think so.  If it was your only revolver and it went from a $0 balance to a reported balance, perhaps.  Do you have balances reported currently on your other revolvers, or do you keep them all at $0 balances?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I certainly wouldn't think so.  If it was your only revolver and it went from a $0 balance to a reported balance, perhaps.  Do you have balances reported currently on your other revolvers, or do you keep them all at $0 balances?

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As of today, I have the Lowes card reporting the $56 and Golden 1 reporting 4%. Golden 1 statement closed earlier in the month. All others show $0 balance, Amex hasn't reported to CRs yet. Will be interesting to see what happens when USBank reports in a couple days, it should show 3%. The Active staus might be unrelated to the score increase, but it was an interesting coincidence. One of my "negatives" shows as "Too few accounts paid on time" as I only had 3 total before my new CCs, with only 1 being used. Never late, just not enough accounts to show payment history?

[Anonymous]

I'd still say it's a coincidence.  Any time you receive an alert, you are provided with a new score.  The score change often has nothing at all to do with the alert reason and your score may have gone up prior to the alert from something completely different (and unalertable) so you're just seeing the change now.

[Anonymous]

Interesting, didn't know the alert and score weren't related.  My EX score has been a roller coaster since I apped for these new CCs, HPs showed up, new accounts showed up, and paid off a student loan. 4 HP on EX since 4/19/18. Maybe it's tied to aggregate util, which went from 0% to 1%? Hard to pin it down, here is the alert history:

Dormant SYNCB/LOWES Retail Card is Now Active

New activity on your previously dormant SYNCB/LOWES account was reported.

May 26, 2018

Credit Rating Increase

Your Credit Rating has changed from Good to Very Good

May 26, 2018

Credit Score Increase

Your FICO Score has increased by 20 points.

May 25, 2018

Dormant SYNCB/LOWES Retail Card is Now Active

New activity on your previously dormant SYNCB/LOWES account was reported.

May 25, 2018

Credit Score Decrease

Your FICO Score has decreased by 14 points.

May 24, 2018

Credit Score Increase

Your FICO Score has increased by 13 points.

May 19, 2018

New Bank/Credit Card

LOAN PAID

BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE has reported Positive Activity - LOAN PAID.

May 18, 2018

New Bank/Credit Card

THE GOLDEN 1 CREDIT UN reported a new account on your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

May 18, 2018

Credit Score Decrease

Your FICO Score has decreased by 8 points.

Credit Limit Increase Bank Card

Congratulations! CAPITALONE raised your credit limit to $10,500.

May 4, 2018

LOAN PAID

NAVIENT has reported Positive Activity - LOAN PAID.

May 3, 2018

New Bank/Credit Card

US BANK reported a new account on your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

May 1, 2018

New Bank/Credit Card

THE GOLDEN 1 CREDIT UN reported a new account on your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

Apr 24, 2018

Bank/Credit Card Inquiry

THE GOLDEN 1 CREDIT UNION obtained a copy of your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

[Anonymous]

If you were really at 0% utilization (no revolving accounts with balances reported) and reported a balance on one of them, taking you to 1% utilization, you achieved "AZEO" or "All Zero Except One" which is known to maximize score.  Typically this adds 16-22 points to your FICO 8 scores, which is right where your increase landed.

It is important to understand that your score can change all the time even without receiving alerts as to the reason why.  For this reason, it can often be very confusing when you see an alert and a new score, as it's common to tie the two events together.

[HeavenOhio]

@Anonymous, just to give an example, a while back, I received a myFICO alert related to a balance change. Along with the balance change came a score increase.

I was already aware of the increase from checking another service a few days prior. At that point, the balance change hadn't occurred yet. This all happened at a time when several inquires and accounts were aging past one year. The increase was likely due to that.

[Anonymous]

Another extreme example that I like to give on how alerts and score changes aren't related:

On May 1, Cornelius has a score of 650.  He has 1 major negative item on his credit report that's holding back his scores big time.  On May 2, the lender with which he has the negative item decides to remove it and reports this change to the bureaus on May 3.  This is not an alertable event and Cornelius is not aware of the baddie being removed.

On May 10, Cornelius applies for a credit card.  Also on May 10 one of his other credit cards that had a $0 balance reported on it previously gets reported with a $500 balance. Cornelius receives 2 alerts on May 10.  One states that he received a new inquiry.  The other informs him of the balance increase.  

Cornelius is provided with a new FICO score and it's 725!  He incorrectly assumes that either the inquiry, balance increase or combination of the two resulted in a 75 point gain.  They of course didn't, as neither of these things are score-improving factors... but since there was no alert to go along with the baddie removal it gives Cornelius a false understanding of what happened.

[Anonymous]

HO and BBS, I think I finally have a clearer picture of how this works, thank you for the examples, they really helped clear it up.

[NRB525]

OP, what are your scores? Going from what to what?

You list a BK 8 years ago, is that still reporting? When does it drop?