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In early Jan I had a sudden FICO EQ drop, with no change in my credit report other than aging. Here's a before and after sequence, month by month, of FICO scores and UTIL as well as number of revolving CCs reporting a balance:
The Columns are Month, AAoA, OldestA, Number CCs reporting non zero balance, Util, and FICO
Oct 2.47 3.75 2 3% 756
Nov 2.55 3.83 3 12% 748
Dec 2.63 3.92 3 4% 757
*** Rebucket Occurs Here
Jan 2.72 4.00 3 3% 703
Feb 2.80 4.08 1 0% 755
Mar 2.88 4.17 3 11% 690
Apr 2.30 4.25 0 1% 764 (New Walmart card added - score jumped AAoA dropped)
Full disclosure. 3CC revolvers, 1 Amex Charge, 1 Checking OD Loc. The above excludes the Amex which always has a monthly balance that has never affected EQ scores. The Checking loc has never been used. All lines over 1 y/o. No Inqs. No negs. All are PIF. I just added a Walmart card (now included) WOW,
Now I know FICO scoring is, um, complicated, but Really? Rebucketing changing thing THAT much?
I hope Fair Isaac doesn't charge too much for these puppies.
How long has it been since you prayed to the FICO Gods?
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship” – Benjamin Franklin
Gardening since 3-26-15
Added a Walmart card a few days ago and EQ jumped from 690 to 736. No other changes. Go figure. My new scorecard likes a new account. A lot.
Another card just reported 0 balance making it 3 out of 5 cards reporting balances. FICO now at 754.
IMO, it isn't rebucketing. Your score wouldn't have rebounded that soon. Assuming all is equal (e.g. no dropped TLs, no added TLs, etc.), your situation demonstrates how sensitive util is though.
@llecs wrote:IMO, it isn't rebucketing. Your score wouldn't have rebounded that soon. Assuming all is equal (e.g. no dropped TLs, no added TLs, etc.), your situation demonstrates how sensitive util is though.
The rebucketing, technically a scorecard change, clearly occured in Jan. Since then the number of accounts with 0 balance have been hypersensitive before and after the Walmart account reported. Util makes a difference, but is relatively small. The drop has no other explanation than a scorecard change. The subsequent increase is consistent with that change as the hypersensitivity to accounts with balances continues.
Notice the Nov and Mar FICOs are hugely different, the Util is actually slightly lower in Mar. Also, all accounts are reporting a balance in both months. Has to be a new scorecard.
@cashnocredit wrote:In early Jan I had a sudden FICO EQ drop, with no change in my credit report other than aging. Here's a before and after sequence, month by month, of FICO scores and UTIL as well as number of revolving CCs reporting a balance:
The Columns are Month, AAoA, OldestA, Number CCs reporting non zero balance, Util, and FICO
Oct 2.47 3.75 2 3% 756
Nov 2.55 3.83 3 12% 748
Dec 2.63 3.92 3 4% 757*** Rebucket Occurs Here
Jan 2.72 4.00 3 3% 703
Feb 2.80 4.08 1 0% 755
Mar 2.88 4.17 3 11% 690
Full disclosure. 3CC revolvers, 1 Amex Charge, 1 Checking OD Loc. The above excludes the Amex which always has a monthly balance that has never affected EQ scores. The Checking loc has never been used. All lines over 1 y/o. No Inqs. No negs. All are PIF. I just added a Walmart card but it is not part of the above, it will be interesting to see how it affects this in the future.
Now I know FICO scoring is, um, complicated, but Really? Rebucketing changing thing THAT much?
I hope Fair Isaac doesn't charge too much for these puppies.
I have zeroed out all my CCs including Amex except for a small amount on a Visa. EQ FICO has returned to 759.
Interesting how in this new scorecard FICO is very sensitive to the number of cards with balances. Much more so than util which was previously the primary FICO impactor.
Sorry if i missed it, but there are no HPs here that might have caused a change in score? Not even when you got that new WalMart card?
@nickf4rr wrote:Sorry if i missed it, but there are no HPs here that might have caused a change in score? Not even when you got that new WalMart card?
Nope. TU was pulled for Walmart. EQ has no Inqs.
@cashnocredit wrote:
@cashnocredit wrote:In early Jan I had a sudden FICO EQ drop, with no change in my credit report other than aging. Here's a before and after sequence, month by month, of FICO scores and UTIL as well as number of revolving CCs reporting a balance:
The Columns are Month, AAoA, OldestA, Number CCs reporting non zero balance, Util, and FICO
Oct 2.47 3.75 2 3% 756
Nov 2.55 3.83 3 12% 748
Dec 2.63 3.92 3 4% 757*** Rebucket Occurs Here
Jan 2.72 4.00 3 3% 703
Feb 2.80 4.08 1 0% 755
Mar 2.88 4.17 3 11% 690
Full disclosure. 3CC revolvers, 1 Amex Charge, 1 Checking OD Loc. The above excludes the Amex which always has a monthly balance that has never affected EQ scores. The Checking loc has never been used. All lines over 1 y/o. No Inqs. No negs. All are PIF. I just added a Walmart card but it is not part of the above, it will be interesting to see how it affects this in the future.
Now I know FICO scoring is, um, complicated, but Really? Rebucketing changing thing THAT much?
I hope Fair Isaac doesn't charge too much for these puppies.
I have zeroed out all my CCs including Amex except for a small amount on a Visa. EQ FICO has returned to 759.
Interesting how in this new scorecard FICO is very sensitive to the number of cards with balances. Much more so than util which was previously the primary FICO impactor.
EQ FICO has now risen to 764 when the Visa mentioned above also reported 0 balance as of 4/17/13, On 3/17/13 it had bottomed at 690. One previously unused OD LOC is reporting a balance of $100.