FICO Auto Score 8-what's a good score?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A long while back I suggested that this intuitively plausible common sense idea was likely to be the case.   I.e. that the Auto flavors of FICO were likely to weigh Auto accounts more heavily than a Classic or Bankcard flavor.  The exact details of that I was unsure but it just seemed obvious that the very nature of an auto flavor would involve this. 

In the last year it seems like people are much more receptive to this idea, which is encouraging.

Assuming it to be true, I remain unclear about the details.  For example,  it's not clear to me that the auto loan needs to be open.  Maybe the Auto flavor gives scoring benefit for closed auto loans that had a perfect payment history.

The practical risk in speculating about this is that it could induce a person to specific actions: e.g. Bob doesn't have an auto loan so he decides to get one to help improve his auto score.  Buying a car is expensive!  Nobody should ever make an expensive purchuse based on a hypothetical scoring benefit.

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I have commented on this in years past. Fico Auto enhanced is the only Flavor that has ever listed a reason statement: "No recent activity from an Auto loan" as a negative. Never saw this with the bankcard or Classic versions. Thus, the conclusion that the Auto flavor looks for this attribute to some degree. Again, it is unclear that the loan needs to be open and I don't believe impact is more than 10 points.

 Note again: The heavy use was due to an AMEX charge card reporting 100% B/HB. This account balance is not considered as part of revolving credit account with balances. It is classified as an "open account with 30 day terms" requiring PIF every reporting cycle.

[Anonymous]

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@Thomas_Thumb

I have commented on this in years past. Fico Auto enhanced is the only Flavor that has ever listed a reason statement: "No recent activity from an Auto loan" as a negative. Never saw this with the bankcard or Classic versions. Thus, the conclusion that the Auto flavor looks for this attribute to some degree. Again, it is unclear that the loan needs to be open and I don't believe impact is more than 10 points.

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Interesting that it's the only version that provides that reason statement.  As I stated on the previous page, closing my only open auto loan reduced my Classic 8 scores 4-5 points while installment loan utilization remained constant (within 2%).  Since it impacts other score versions, it's surprising that they wouldn't provide that reason statement at least on some profiles. 

[Anonymous]

Hi BBS.  Can you remind us what open loans you had before and after the auto loan closed... and also what the balances and original loan amounts were for all of them? 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi BBS.  Can you remind us what open loans you had before and after the auto loan closed... and also what the balances and original loan amounts were for all of them? 

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My memory is that you had exactly one other loan and this was a mortgage.  Can you confirm?

If the score drop was really related to the closure of the auto loan, it was likely not the fact that FICO 8 Classic likes seeing an auto loan (possible but improbable) but rather that it was giving you a few points for having a non-mortgage loan that was almost entirely paid off.  We know that the text of many negative reason codes appears to imply that FICO models may look at mortgage and non-mortgage debt differently.

[Anonymous]

Hey CGID.  Yes, my other open loan is a mortgage in the mid 70's percentile wise regarding utilization.  My auto loan I paid off early, so it hadn't yet reached the 8.9% threshold of being "substantially paid down."  The auto loan was at about 26% utilization at the time I paid it off.

[Anonymous]

What’s all this percentile stuff mean. And how does one use or calculate it from these charts?

[HeavenOhio]

For what it's worth, I have no installment loans at all on my reports, either open or closed. Of the 28 scores that myFICO gives me, my four lowest are auto scores. They particularly stand out because they're on a 900-point scale. The other five auto scores are well above 800.

• FICO Auto 5 (EQ): 832/900
• FICO Auto 4 (TU): 769/900
• FICO Auto 2 (EX): 777/900
• FICO Auto 8 (EQ): 774/900
• FICO Auto 8 (TU): 813/900
• FICO Auto 8 (EX): 782/900
• FICO Auto 9 (EQ): 835/900
• FICO Auto 9 (TU): 817/900
• FICO Auto 9 (EX): 820/900

The four low scores bump up a bit when I have one of six cards reporting a positive balance rather than the two I have currently. But they're still well below 800. The only other scores I have below 800 are the TU and EX mortgage scores, but they're on a scale of 839 and 850 respectively.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A long while back I suggested that this intuitively plausible common sense idea was likely to be the case.   I.e. that the Auto flavors of FICO were likely to weigh Auto accounts more heavily than a Classic or Bankcard flavor. 

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This is exactly what my friend (he's a career finance manager who's worked for many major and small dealerships over the decades) told me about the auto loan FICOs - the heaviest weight factor is one's payment history on auto loans.  Dunno about closed vs existing but I'll assume both are extremely important to getting a great approval based upon my friend's insistance.  He also mentioned paying a few bucks over the principal every month on one's auto loan is a good thing that factors in, too.

[Anonymous]

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@AnonymousHe also mentioned paying a few bucks over the principal every month on one's auto loan is a good thing that factors in, too.

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I'm not sure how that could factor into scoring.  I suppose under a MR it could look good if you're paying a little extra toward principal each month.  I fail to see how a FICO Auto score could be positively impacted by paying extra toward principal.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@AnonymousHe also mentioned paying a few bucks over the principal every month on one's auto loan is a good thing that factors in, too.

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I'm not sure how that could factor into scoring.  I suppose under a MR it could look good if you're paying a little extra toward principal each month.  I fail to see how a FICO Auto score could be positively impacted by paying extra toward principal.

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OK, I just saw him & had a brewski with him and showed this thread to him.  The extra toward the principal was ONLY to help keep one from being upside down, which obviously benefits the buyer with a trade-in.  He also said the FICO auto score doesn't care if you have a current payment or not - one, two, whatever, paid off auto loans are just as good as one paid off and one current.  Even a SINGLE 30-day late can torpedo a deal for the buyer in a very bad way he said - even if it happened a single day within the 7-yr SOL when they pull the CRs.  He said CC's and all other debts take 2nd fiddle to auto loans in consideration.... FWIW.