Different agency reactions

[Anonymous]

Do the agencys react different to carrying a balance on multiple cards vs not?

Last report i had 5 balances reporting, i was only at 17% utilization overall however, and all cards were under 30 percent. However my TU has consistently dropped, so does TU, or all the agencys for that matter have different reactions to amount of cards with balance?

[Anonymous]

Equifax has been known to be exceptionally sensitive to the number of accounts reporting a balance, especially the EQ mortgage score.

I believe that BBS might have shown that EQ is also the most sensitive bureau for FICO 8.

PS.  You use the phrase "carrying a balance" but I am pretty sure that what you are trying to say is reporting a balance.  None of the current FICO models (including FICO 9) consider as a scoring factor whether a person is carrying a balance.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do the agencys react different to carrying a balance on multiple cards vs not?

Last report i had 5 balances reporting, i was only at 17% utilization overall however, and all cards were under 30 percent. However my TU has consistently dropped, so does TU, or all the agencys for that matter have different reactions to amount of cards with balance?

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Yes, the CRAs have the ability to tweak Fico models relative to # of cards (accounts) reporting balances. The ability to tweak is true for Fico 98, Fico and Fico 8 models but, most tweaking was eliminated with Fico 9.

I have found TU to be the most sensitive to cards reporting with EQ a close second. Experian treats # cards reporting with indifference for the most part.

Conversely, With Fico 04 EQ was most impacted by changes in # cards reporting. TU Fico 04 was a distant 2nd. I found changes in # of cards reporting had little affect EX Fico 04 and EX Fico 98 scores.