@Anonymous wrote:I got it from MYFICO.com.
Then at least you know you have a true FICO score. 
I'm still thinking of reasons why his scored has not changed. Not any points up or down?
From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
Thanks for the response!
In April the negative factors were: serious delinquency ( 3.3 yrs ago a Verizon bill went to collections. We moved, the bill went to our old address, we paid it as soon as we got it, but I've tried and gotten no sympathy from Verizon.), no recent actvity on credit cards & short credit history (AAoA 9yrs).
In June (when the score dropped) the negative factors were: serious delinquency (same as above, everything else is on time), too many recent credit inquiries (3) and no recent activity on CCs. (Now the length of credit history is on the plus side but AAoA is still 9 years. ?)
In November & December the negatives are the same as in June but on the positives side I am seeing the AAoA has dropped to 7 years. (Now 7 years is on the plus side when 9 years was on the negative?)
One thing that is confusing to me is that on the plus side there is: bills paid on time, length of credit history & low usage (0%-3%), but when I try the program for "best action to take to raise my score" it says to "pay down credit card balances 90-100% over the next 6 months. Since I PIF every month and have been paying to less than 10% before they report (I thought it was beneficial to show a small balance) I don't understand this. Should I PIF before they report?
I am wondering if it is the type of CCs that are the problem.
He is an AU on our AA Advantage MC (40k+ limit) but since they don't report a CL......
We have a joint Chase United PLus Visa (10k limit) but I just read (and noticed) that they report as "open" not revolving.
He has one of those new Macy's AmEx cards with a 1k limit.
He is an AU on a Home Depot Card with a 2.5k limit.
He has a Toyota Lease that is about to expire.
He has a joint mortgage.
Everything is in good standing.
He has lots of inactive cards and closed accounts. I have tried to reactivate the inactive ones to no avail. They all claim closed even if not reporting that way. Before we understood the scoring/reporting system he had a habit if not using and closing accounts
So......Any advice for the best course of action? I am wondering if it should be a new credit card that reports a CL? I was going to try for a CLI on the Chase card but it seems like that is pointless.
One final question: We need a new car lease. Should it be in my name to avoid the hard pull & shorter history or is it better to have it in his?
Thanks so much for your help. We really need his score up past 720 because we want to renovate and will need a HELOC later this year.
On your husband's report, the fact that the listed negatives are what they are means that he's just going to have to wait it out:
- serious delinquency
- too many recent credit inquiries
- short credit history
- no recent actvity on credit cards
Other than the "no recent activity" bit, this is all just stuff that will take time. The serious delinquency will hurt less with time, but he'll always be in a negative score bucket (aka scorecard) until it falls off. The recent inqs will stop being scored after one year, although they remain on the full credit report for two. Short history (see more below) just needs more time. What is his AAoA and his age of oldest account? (both matter)
The fact that high util is not listed as a factor means that there's not a lot that he could do on that. In fact, it looks like he needs to let 5 bucks report on a card (the "no recent activity" bit.) Since FICO scoring is risk scoring, it needs to see responsible use of credit. In other words, both things: responsible + usage.
On the following, is this your report or his?
One thing that is confusing to me is that on the plus side there is: bills paid on time, length of credit history & low usage (0%-3%), but when I try the program for "best action to take to raise my score" it says to "pay down credit card balances 90-100% over the next 6 months. Since I PIF every month and have been paying to less than 10% before they report (I thought it was beneficial to show a small balance) I don't understand this. Should I PIF before they report?
Do you let balances report on every card, every time? You only need one to report a token balance. If you let all or too many of your cards report balances, you can get dinged. As another member memorably has in his/her (I think her) siggy, "Dinged if you do, and dinged if you don't."
Length of history looks at both oldest reporting account and AAoA. I sometimes get dinged on short history because my oldest account is over 20 years old, but my AAoA just dropped under 5 years again, partially courtesy of a data breach at PenFed, and they replaced a 10-month-old card, and now it reports twice, lowering my AAoA. 
So "short history" might mean short oldest account, short AAoA, or short AAoA in comparison with the oldest account.
As for the confusion with the migrating factors between negative and "positive" factors, the fact is that the list of positives is really just sort of a warm-fuzzy thing. There isn't really a list of "positive factors" for FICO scoring. The things that show up on the positive side are actually negatives or potential negatives that are hurting you the least. That's why you'll see the same thing hop back and forth.