Had a big drop in my and my DW's EX FICO8 today, all due to a single change. One of my DW's revolvers that I am also an AU reported from a $15 to $0 balance today, and that was the only change on both of our reports that I can find.
DW's EX FICO 8 dropped by 21 points (from 729 to 708).
The only revolver reporting a balance is my Care Credit, of which she is an AU.
She is also an AU on one of my other revolvers, but it also has a $0 balance.
In total, she has 3 revolvers reporting $0 and she is listed as AU on 2 revolvers which 1 lists a balance with 8% UTI.
My EX FICO 8 dropped by 14 points (from 722 to 708).
My Care Credit is reporting a balance at 8% UTI.
I am listed as an AU on the DW account that went from $15 balance to a $0 today.
In total, I have 3 revolvers reporting 1 with a balance, and I am listed as an AU on 1 revolver with a $0 balance.
I can see the reason for DW dropping, but I'm surprised by my FICO dropping since I didn't think the AU would be counted this way.
Any thoughts on this?
Some pics below to help illustrate:
The only change I can find in anything reported on my EX is that particular account going to a $0 balance. I've combed through the EX report for any differences between today and yesterday, and I couldn't find anything that is reported.
Perhaps something changed in the background that doesn't show on the reports?
The interesting tidbit to me is that EX shows the Care Credit as a "retail" card. So I'm wondering if a "retail" card carries the same rules that a bank card does when it comes to AZEO?
For my wife's EX report, I can see where her changes occurred after some further checking.
Her new revolver that was acquired in March reported today, dropping her AAoA from 6y 9m to 5y 11m (there is a threshold @ 6 years, right?).
Her open credit card accounts went from 2 to 3.
Still not sure why my FICO took a hit, though.
@DollyLama wrote:You are not an AU on her "new" card?
Did your Oldest, Average and Youngest ages of accounts stay the same or at least age 1 month?
Your Care Credit, was this card unused and recently used? Some dings can happen on a card than goes from being inactive to active.
You had no inquiries for new credit OR hard inquiries for any credit line increases?
No, I didn't add myself as AU on her 2 new revolvers (only 1 has reported on her credit report so far, the other is AMEX).
Care Credit has been active with a 6 month promo that ends in a few months.
I applied for an Uber and Discover last Thursday, which Uber has already been added to my reports and the Discover card HP had already shown up on EX. The Discover account may be adding in the background but not showing on the reports yet.
@DollyLama wrote:
@Duke_Nukem wrote:Her open credit card accounts went from 2 to 3.
Her file shows 5 revolvers, so two accounts are closed on revolving, if so how long ago was the most recent closed?
No accounts have closed. I'm guessing the 2 AU cards are not reported in that EX summary saying it went from 2 to 3 credit cards? I took that directly off the EX summary page.
@Anonymous wrote:Some retail ("store") cards aren't considered by the FICO algorithm for whatever reason. I'm not sure if Care Credit falls into that list, but it's simple enough for you to test if you just allow that to be your AZEO card and go from a small reported balance to no balance and back to a small reported balance again. If your score remains constant (no revolving credit use penalty present the entire time) you can say with certainty that it is being ignored by the algorithm and that you'd want to use a different card for AZEO purposes. This is one of the reasons that you often see the recommendation on this forum to always use a major bank card, not a store card for AZEO since major bank cards are always considered.
That makes sense, BBS. I'm new to AZEO, so learning as I go. I don't plan on maintaining AZEO... only do it when we have something coming up that I would like to boost our scores as much as possible. It worked like a charm this past month with our 2 CC apps that we both did the past few weeks!
Will learn to use the major banks for the "1" in the future! Thanks for you and Dolly's help!