@lg8302ch wrote:There are different factors for Fico scoring. When your utilization comes down then Fico does increase unless you have similar low utilization % and something counts stronger. I have the example where I pay down balances on more than 1 account and overall utilization gets lower but my score even drops. The reason for the drop is that 1 or more accounts report balances. Let's say I have 14 accounts and 7 accounts with balances. I pay down multiple accounts and have lower overall utilization but get a score drop because there is a new account reporting 1$ charge. That means over 50% of my accounts report a balance and this fact gets scored stronger on my profile. I have done all sorts of testing with my profile as I love to challenge MyFico and get some knowledge out of my Score Watch subscription. There were some interesting results. My ultimate surprise in 2013 with former model was with 8 accounts I had at that time. I managed to get a 45 points difference with same utilization % and same amount but in different ways. My test was 8 accounts report 1$ balance and the next cycle there were 7 accounts 0 balance and 1 account 8$. You agree it is the same utilization and same amount but the result was 45 points difference at that time. My strongest enemy today is still the number of accounts reporting a balance once it goes over 50% of my accounts I have a drop of 20-30 points with same utilization. Each profile acts differently but if you have score monitor option it is quite nice to test a bit. Just do not test with all accounts maxed out. I was really nervous when I did this with 2 accounts as the last thing I wanted to spook a lender.
Awesome data; thank you.
@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:
@JmmyBrdn wrote:
Based off what I have learned about this you will need to give them an additional 30-60 days to see any increase in your score. The reason is because they want to make sure you did not borrow money from somewhere to pay down your credit cards or open an installment loan with someone to pay off your credit cards. . I believe several members have talked about this in the past.I'm sorry, but this is just not correct.
Utilization changes are immediately factored into FICO scores.
+1
@buffy615 wrote:bdhu2001: thank you for this very-easy-to-understand explanation. I guess I had paid the bill just too soon, so I ended up with the zero utilization. So, FICO doesn't know or care how much I put on a card each month. It only cares how much is on a card at the end of a billing period? So I could charge $1,000 today, but if I pay it off before the end of the billing period, it will register as a zero with FICO?
Correct.
@Anonymous wrote:Okay so I did the little $1 trial at Transunion, and the score is 50 points lower than here at myFICO, which is 1 point off of what CK is showing as well, which are always lower than myFICO and I think CK also uses that Vantage Score model. Why is Transunion using that if they are supposed to be what myFICO is showing?
If you are checking scores directly from TU, EQ, CK, and not myFICO, then you are talking a language that is different than what most people are used to here. The common "FICO Score" here is only from myFICO, or Discover (TU), or Slate (EX), or a few other cards.
What are your myFICO scores, from the report you paid $29 for? That should include monitoring.
Which cards do you have, what is the CL on each, and what reported, on the last statement that you have, on each of the cards?
One other factor to clarify, and you may have already included this in your comments, but it's critical. You may pay a credit card on a certain day, but usually you have to wait a few days after the statement prints, before you see any alert on myFICO.
