Can Someone Help Me Understand My NFCU FICO 9 Score?

[Anonymous]

I made a large payment on my CR card on 4/15. It took my utilization down from 99% to 61%. My statements close on the 27th of the month. Got my 3B report from Experian on 4/30. Experian and Equifax had updated, but not TransUnion. Both FICO8 scores had increased.  I signed up for myFICO on 5/6 and my Equifax FICO9 was 36 points higher than what Navy Federal showed when it updated on the 7th. The NFCU score had not changed from the previous month.

I know scores can change from day to day, but absolutely nothing had changed on my credit report from the 6th to the 7th. I didn't apply for any new credit, no inquiries, nothing aged or was deleted. Navy CSR didn't know what to tell me other than the score was based on Equifax data and they didn't alter the free score based on their algorithm. Talked to another CSR and they didn't know why either. Equifax tried to pass the buck to FICO and FICO referred me back to Equifax. I had EQ send me a copy of my May 7th report and it was the same as it was on the 6th (and April 30th). Both reported the lower balance.

Has anyone ever had their score not update when it should? Was this just a glitch? I'm not terribly worried about it, but I plan to pay the card down to 8% tomorrow, plus my SSL should post at the end of the month. I want to app for a CLI and a new card next month, so I'd like to know they're getting the correct scores.

[thornback]

The date that shows on your NFCU score is not the date they actually pulled the score -- it's just the date they updated it to the site. 

Navy does Account Review pulls from Equifax on the fourth Tuesday of the month then updates your account with your EQ 9 during the first week of the following month.  So the score you see now is actually from 4/28. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I made a large payment on my CR card on 4/15. It took my utilization down from 99% to 61%. My statements close on the 27th of the month. Got my 3B report from Experian on 4/30. Experian and Equifax had updated, but not TransUnion. Both FICO8 scores had increased.  I signed up for myFICO on 5/6 and my Equifax FICO9 was 36 points higher than what Navy Federal showed when it updated on the 7th. The NFCU score had not changed from the previous month.

I know scores can change from day to day, but absolutely nothing had changed on my credit report from the 6th to the 7th. I didn't apply for any new credit, no inquiries, nothing aged or was deleted. Navy CSR didn't know what to tell me other than the score was based on Equifax data and they didn't alter the free score based on their algorithm. Talked to another CSR and they didn't know why either. Equifax tried to pass the buck to FICO and FICO referred me back to Equifax. I had EQ send me a copy of my May 7th report and it was the same as it was on the 6th (and April 30th). Both reported the lower balance.

Has anyone ever had their score not update when it should? Was this just a glitch? I'm not terribly worried about it, but I plan to pay the card down to 8% tomorrow, plus my SSL should post at the end of the month. I want to app for a CLI and a new card next month, so I'd like to know they're getting the correct scores.

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@Anonymous You need to understand how credit reporting and the credit bureaus work.  If your Cash Rewards statement closed on April. 27, that means the data was uploaded to the credit bureaus at 12 midnight Eastern Time on the 27th.  The absolute soonest it could have been updated and available from the credit bureaus is midnight Pacific Time on the 29th. Experian is usually the first to update files, followed by TransUnion, and Equifax generally trails by about five days.

NFCU would have made their Account Review soft inquiry on April 28th when the updated information was not yet released by the credit bureaus.  @thornback is correct.  We happen to know the dates when Navy does their pull because of research I did about two years ago; see the comment linked here. Previously NFCU on did AR on the 4th Tuesday of even-numbered months but now they do it monthly.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @thornback and @Anonymous for the replies that information was extremely helpful. I'm a little dissappointed, I was all excited to apply next month. I'm assuming the reason to wait for the AR is to avoid a hard pull?

I only have two things reporting at the moment... the Cash Rewards card and a recently paid medical collections that's about 3 years old. It's alread reporting as paid. It being EQ9, having that not show will help, but the low utilization and SSL were what I was counting on. I've had the CR for over 2 years, never late.

I was planning to app for a card at another financial institution during this same time frame (to bring my card count up to 3), but now I guess because of the inq hit I should wait and do it all at the same time.

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you @thornback and @Anonymous for the replies that information was extremely helpful. I'm a little dissappointed, I was all excited to apply next month. I'm assuming the reason to wait for the AR is to avoid a hard pull?

I only have two things reporting at the moment... the Cash Rewards card and a recently paid medical collections that's about 3 years old. It's alread reporting as paid. It being EQ9, having that not show will help, but the low utilization and SSL were what I was counting on. I've had the CR for over 2 years, never late.

I was planning to app for a card at another financial institution during this same time frame (to bring my card count up to 3), but now I guess because of the inq hit I should wait and do it all at the same time.

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If you're applying for a new credit card with NFCU, it's going to be a hard pull using TU9 (this is in the majority of cases - rarely do the pull a different bureau for new card apps).   So they'll see the updated report and score when the pull for the app. So don't let the score on the website stop you from apping.

If you're applying for a CLI with NFCU, that's when the use EQ9 and your internal NFCU score without hard-pulling your credit.

Even if you wait til next month - your EQ9 will be updated in the first week. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info @thornback , this is what I figured. I knew it was a hard pull on TU9 for new cards. I was planning to request the CLI first, then the new card, but that doesn't much matter now. Another thing I found out last night was that my SSL won't post the 8% utilization until the end of June. So it's going to be better for me to wait til the first week in July to app.

By the way, I love the quotes in your signature.

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the info @thornback , this is what I figured. I knew it was a hard pull on TU9 for new cards. I was planning to request the CLI first, then the new card, but that doesn't much matter now. Another thing I found out last night was that my SSL won't post the 8% utilization until the end of June. So it's going to be better for me to wait til the first week in July to app.

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Sounds like a plan...   wish you the best of luck when the time to app arrives...

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@Anonymous wrote:

By the way, I love the quotes in your signature.

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^^ Thanks!  Glad someone read them -- they help me keep my head in the game