I'd recommend $1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores and reports at Experian.com or creditchecktotal.com. Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.
Something must have happened. To my understanding Fico score is formula based on few equations that are reported by creditors and lenders data point.
See if one of her CCs got closed!
@Anonymous wrote:Does the current economic downturn make everyone less creditworthy?
I am asking because my wife's FICO score as reported on her Discover statement dropped dramatically for no apparent reason, from 758 in Feb 2020 to 719 in March to 700 in April, after being relatively steady in the 734-761 range for the past 12 months.
I just pulled a Transunion report to compare with an Equifax report of a couple months ago, and found no hard inquiries, no reduction of credit limits, no accounts closed, nothing significant happened.
The is also no obvious change in her FICO scoring factors in the last few months:
Payment history: all on time, amounts owed: decreased, length of credit history: natural increase, new credit: none, credit mix: nothing evident.
What can be going on?
1. No the economic downturn is not a scoring factor.
2. You need to compare the February and March TU reports; comparing TU to EQ doesn't help.
3. We would need to know exactly what the differences are between the two reports.
No, my reports went up slightly
(720s fico8, 670s fico9)
I also got two new credit cards (20k, 4.5k) in the last 10 days.
Reports will go up and down, but I doubt they would be affected by the economy in general.
GL!
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks to all who replied. Clearly, it seems there is no universal issue here.
I checked March & April Equifax reports. No accounts closed, no hard inquiries, nothing like that. There are a lot of random blanks for monthly balances, etc, interstingly, so Equifax is not pulling data consistently.
The only possibility and unsatisfactory explanation for the score drop is that she did two balance transfers (taking advantage of 0% offers) from our home equity account to two different existing credit cards in January and February, which seem to show up delayed on the Equifax report as balances two month later (in March for the first and not yet for the second transfer). Utilization on these two cards went to ~100%, but the amounts were exactly offset by balance reductions in the home equity, so overall credit utilization should not have changed. A third card has also been maxed out much earlier (another 0% opportunity) but that has not changed much for 8 months.
Mystery really unsolved.
The balance on home equity loan has collateral, your house vs. revolving accounts that are unsecured. Credit scores don't calculate the utilization as whole sum even tho they displayed in some monitoring sites.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks to all who replied. Clearly, it seems there is no universal issue here.
I checked March & April Equifax reports. No accounts closed, no hard inquiries, nothing like that. There are a lot of random blanks for monthly balances, etc, interstingly, so Equifax is not pulling data consistently.
The only possibility and unsatisfactory explanation for the score drop is that she did two balance transfers (taking advantage of 0% offers) from our home equity account to two different existing credit cards in January and February, which seem to show up delayed on the Equifax report as balances two month later (in March for the first and not yet for the second transfer). Utilization on these two cards went to ~100%, but the amounts were exactly offset by balance reductions in the home equity, so overall credit utilization should not have changed. A third card has also been maxed out much earlier (another 0% opportunity) but that has not changed much for 8 months.
Mystery really unsolved.
In my opinion, the mystery really is solved. She maxed out 2 cards, which is a FICO score disaster, and there was no corresponding event sufficient to take the heat off of that.
You are mixing together 3 completely different scoring factors:
1. Individual account revolving utilization
Utilization is based on reported balance, which in most but not all accounts is statement balance. The most important breakpoint is 30%. 30% or higher causes significant point loss. Optimum to keep at 28% or less to avoid rounding up.
2. Aggregate revolving utilization
Utilization is based on reported balances, which in most but not all accounts is statement balance. The most important breakpoint is 10%. Optimum to keep at 8.9% or less, but more points will be gained by keeping it as low as possible, so long as there is at least one account reporting a small balance.
3. Aggregate installment utilization
The total of all open installment loan balances divided by the total original loan amounts of those loans. Most important breakpoint is 10%. Optimum to keep at 9% or less.