Big hit to EX Fico 8 with no big changes to file

[CaptJOB]

Howdy. I've been monitoring my girlfriends credit on Experian(usually with the premium service trial but I think I'm currently between service) and I just noticed this morning that her score took a 28 point hit and went from 692 to 664. The only thing that changed was that I took her off as an AU on my Chase Sapphire(opened 8/1/2018) since I upgraded from Preferred to Reserve. She's still an AU on my Amex Gold account(opened 11/1/18) and has a longer credit history than I do. Her utilization is still at 2% so that shouldn't be impacting it.  

Experian is citing having 4 open accounts as suboptimal with 5 being suggested but I feel like that's just some marketing stuff.

I can give more info here if anyone thinks that'll clarify anything but if this is just a normal thing I guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board for her rebuild(has a 90 day late in early 2016 bringing things down).

Any insight here would be gratly appreciated.

Thanks!

[SouthJamaica]

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@CaptJOB wrote:

Howdy. I've been monitoring my girlfriends credit on Experian(usually with the premium service trial but I think I'm currently between service) and I just noticed this morning that her score took a 28 point hit and went from 692 to 664. The only thing that changed was that I took her off as an AU on my Chase Sapphire(opened 8/1/2018) since I upgraded from Preferred to Reserve. She's still an AU on my Amex Gold account(opened 11/1/18) and has a longer credit history than I do. Her utilization is still at 2% so that shouldn't be impacting it.  

Experian is citing having 4 open accounts as suboptimal with 5 being suggested but I feel like that's just some marketing stuff.

I can give more info here if anyone thinks that'll clarify anything but if this is just a normal thing I guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board for her rebuild(has a 90 day late in early 2016 bringing things down).

Any insight here would be gratly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Taking her off as an AU on the Sapphire card sounds like a "big change" to me.

[ldkcivilservant]

Me too. It could have hit her AAoA and Util depending on her profile. Apparently it did.

[CaptJOB]

Yeah I suppose I was just surprised since it's not her oldest account, it didn't cause a utilization spike, and she's an AU on another of my cards that's only a few months younger. Is something as simple as adding her back on another card as an AU enough to bump that back up?

[Remedios]

CSP was new(ish). OP stated wife has longer history than him. Having a newer account removed would actually make AAoA longer, not shorter. It's possible (if no utilization changes) that she was moved to a different scorecard. With newer accounts, she would have been "compared" to younger files, and probably doing better. On a scorecard reserved for older files, maybe not so good. 

Another possibility would be that only AU or store card reported a balance this month. 

[CaptJOB]

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@Remedios wrote:

CSP was new(ish). OP stated wife has longer history than him. Having a newer account removed would actually make AAoA longer, not shorter. It's possible (if no utilization changes) that she was moved to a different scorecard. With newer accounts, she would have been "compared" to younger files, and probably doing better. On a scorecard reserved for older files, maybe not so good. 

Another possibility would be that only AU or store card reported a balance this month. 

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I think you must be right with the scorecard changing. Is it worth it to add her back on another card as an AU or will that showing up as a new account just cause another issue?

[Remedios]

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@CaptJOB wrote:

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@Remedios wrote:

CSP was new(ish). OP stated wife has longer history than him. Having a newer account removed would actually make AAoA longer, not shorter. It's possible (if no utilization changes) that she was moved to a different scorecard. With newer accounts, she would have been "compared" to younger files, and probably doing better. On a scorecard reserved for older files, maybe not so good. 

Another possibility would be that only AU or store card reported a balance this month. 

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I think you must be right with the scorecard changing. Is it worth it to add her back on another card as an AU or will that showing up as a new account just cause another issue?

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Honestly, I'd just leave it alone unless she needs access to cards for purposes of managing household. 

She may qualify for one of her own in  no time.  

[CaptJOB]

She has three of her own cards with 30k avilable across them and the problem is that she wants to imporve her credit and does not like credit cards(the one she has the late on was from a pushy banker when she was in college). Doing my best to help her out and this was by far the biggest step backwards I've seen. Had her sitting in the 690-700 range on all three beureaus and now it's back to the long waiting game of that late falling off in three years.

Thanks for your help here!

[Anonymous]

She has a 90 day late; she's on a dirty scorecard, so removing an AU should not cause a scorecard reassignment.

I was recently reading some threads where it appears FICO 8 gives a separate "no revolving balance" penalty for AU accounts on EX and TU. Therefore, if you removed her as AU from the credit card, yet she still is an AU on the charge card, the algorithm could be imposing the "no AU revolving balance" penalty.

This all assumes the charge card is the only account she is now an AU on. To recover the points, you'd have to either put her on a CC as AU with a small balance or remove her as AU on the charge card, so she doesn't have AUs. Depends, needs further testing.

Only problem is, is it a bonus from having an AU card with a balance or just a separate penalty when you have AUs without balance? If the former, you would wanna add her back to one that'll have a small balance; if the latter, then, your choice, to remove from the charge or put her back on.

Gimme a sec, I'll find the threads for you.

[Anonymous]

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/AU-experiment-amp-score-drops-from-small...