Fair Isaac has never published the criteria it uses for grouping of consumer credit files into categories, or what are commonly called "buckets." I dont believe that there is any such thing as a "negative (lower)" or "positive (higher)" bucket, You just have "a" bucket that may or may not emphasise different information in your credit file at different weightings. Low on one twig my jump to high on another branch.
FICO does not tell you which FICO algoritm was used to compute your score, so, no, you cant really tell if you have been "rebucketed."
However, there is a published document by a major US creditor, First USA Bank, that presents a detailed disclosure of their risk scoring of consumer based on various categories of consideration, . It is U.S. Patent No. 6,202,053. I call this the "Bucket Patent." That describes a process that does not create a linear list of "buckets" for general scoring, but rather creates a branching tree of categories.
Under the FIrst Bank schema, you are first put into one of four possbile major branches.
The first branch is based on whether the credit file is “thick” or “thin.” In general, a thin file is, under their system, less than three trade lines, or no credit card. FICO may categorize thin or thick differently.
Their second major branch is based on delinquencies. Files are classified as “clean” or “dirty”, based on the absence or presence of a major delinquency in the file, which is defined as a late of 60+, or a CO, CA, or PR.
Their third major branch is based on %util on revolving accounts, with various sub-branches thereunder, depending upon the %util.
Their fourth major branch is length of credit history. They use less than 10 years, or 10+ years as a primary breakdown. Once again, FICO may have mor refined buckets based on shorter periods of time. I just dont know.,
Under each of these four major branches, the sub-branches thereunder thus branch off according to your placement under the indiividual criteria of the other three major branches.
For example, if you are placed on the first major branch (:thick or thin credit file), then there are sub-branches that further refine the categization based on % util, cean or dirty, and lenght of credit history. So you end up in a "bucket" that is just a twig on the branch of the tree.
However, for example, if you are placed on the second major branch (clean or dirty), then there are sub-branches that further refine the cateforization based on thick or thin, % util, and lengthe of credit history.
That tree results in 12 possible final scorng buckets. Movements from one to the other may be jumps up the twig ot the tree, or jumps to a new branch. This seems to approximate the general statements that FICO uses about 12 scoring buckets.
All of that would, of course, begs the question, what determines which major branch of this tree you will be placed on, thus affecting your final scoring bucket?
Your final scoring algorithm would be based on the twig you rest on, You couild move to a higher twig, or jump to a different branch. We just dont know the mysteries of the FICO placement or scoring algorithms.
No one knows, other than Fair Isaac. I only speculate that siince payment history is the most important of FICO scoring categories, at 35% of total score, then msjor branch two might be your placement if you have many major derogs.
If that is the type of system used by Fair Isaac, and I speculate that it is, what it would indicate is that you can move up or down on one one major branch for minor rebucketing changes,but can jump to an entirely different major branch is your change is major placement changes.
For example, if you were initially being bucketed in major branch one, and then brought your credit file from a thin to thick, then your rebucketing might cause a shift in your entire categorization to one of the other three major branches, thus making thin/thick just a sub-branch determination.
I agree with Marty 56. If a CR shows a major derog, and also a low AAoA, I think you would probably end up on major branch two, due to its greater emphasis in your final credit score, than on branch 4.
In summary, from all I have read, I dont believe the answer is as simple as just moving from a lower to a higher scoring bucket.
As the final step in this process, my understanding is that FICO scoring, using whatever preliminary algorithm they rely on, first puts you into a scoring bucket, and then has a different actual scoring algoithm that varies for each bucket, that assesses the FICO categories at different levels based on their scoring algorithm for each of the "buckets," and then arrives at a final three digit score.
That is at least the way I understand credit scoring bucketing. But is really is a mystery.
Starting Score: 600s
