FICO 8 Requires a CL > $50K to Achieve 850?

[Anonymous]

Got a notification for an update to my Experian report due to a CLI on my BoA Cash Rewards. I did not see anything else updated, except for the score. Went from 847 to 850. My new BoA CL is $51,500. 

Could they possibly add points to your score if you have at least one CL on a card > $50K? It looks like 0 point deduction for all accounts reporting balances.

If so, that kind of indirectly factors income into score, which it really shouldn't.

I'll have to wait until TU and EX get the new CL to see if those jump up some or not.

[simplynoir]

From what I recall the only real way FICO 8 considers >$50k lines is for utilization purposes since it doesn't count them

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/50k-limits-not-part-of-utilization/td-p/...

[K-in-Boston]

Definitely not required for 850s.  I'm sure 850 can be accomplished with a nearly paid mortgage, nearly paid auto loan, and 3 $200 secured cards with one of them reporting a $5 balance and the other two $0.  

I'm still not convinced that all cards over $50k are truly excluded from FICO 08.  I have a big BT reporting on a $100k card that was at $0 in 2 weeks; will be interesting to see what happens to scores.  I know that my Delta Reserve which is at $50k is still factored in.

[simplynoir]

I'm sort of unconvinced as well on that. I think for sure older scoring models excluded it but it was more for mortgage scoring purposes since when you reach limits that high it would approach HELOC territory. Your data point will be an interesting one even if not many people would benefit from it

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Definitely not required for 850s.  I'm sure 850 can be accomplished with a nearly paid mortgage, nearly paid auto loan, and 3 $200 secured cards with one of them reporting a $5 balance and the other two $0.  

I'm still not convinced that all cards over $50k are truly excluded from FICO 08.  I have a big BT reporting on a $100k card that was at $0 in 2 weeks; will be interesting to see what happens to scores.  I know that my Delta Reserve which is at $50k is still factored in.

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Yeah, that wouldn't be right for someone with a long history of excellent credit, a good mix, and a max card CL of $15K never to see 850. 

But there's something up with the change in CL with that card it seems. A couple of months ago I had it report $3. It's not zero, but its an altra-low util, but didn't see any real score change, and most everything else was similar.

But it sure seems that "too many accounts with balances" is not part of FICO 8 language when it comes to scoring.

[FinStar]

I achieved 850 without any accounts being over $50K years ago prior to the new scoring versions.

That said, I noticed by pure curiosity and experimentation that several of my revolving tradelines that were above $70K (or upward) eventually stopped counting in the utilization formulas in the older models, but I haven't bothered to check recently with F8 or F9 to be honest since my utilization is fairly low and 850 was already achieved.

So, scores now hover above 800 for all 3 but my...ummmm, yes...lack of gardening skills keeps the scores where they're at which is perfectly ok 😁

[simplynoir]

@Anonymous  If I remember right utilization gets rounded up/down depending on the balance in relation to credit limit. Might be possible it's reporting 0%

[Anonymous]

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@simplynoir wrote:

@Anonymous  If I remember right utilization gets rounded up/down depending on the balance in relation to credit limit. Might be possible it's reporting 0%

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If that is the case, then the card would still be included in util for FICO 8 and it could be something else.

What I think we do know is that FICO 8 doesn't give a hoot about how many cards report balances. I never liked being dinged for that. 

[Anonymous]

Yes, they waited for this moment.

[Anonymous]

Version 8 at Equifax and TransUnion cares how many accounts with the balance you have. Experian isn’t very touchy about it.

We don’t have good negative scoring factors on version eight really except for TU.