FICO Auto Score question

[greeneyesslo]

I refinanced an auto loan back in February 2022 with PenFed since I'm in the rebuilding phase. I have a 2-year clean history of on-time payments and got a good rate. 

That being said, my regular, bankcard, and mortgage scores are continuously going up, up to 10-15 points a month... probably because I've been paying my credit cards and car payments early and regularly, and utilization is under 10%. I don't currently have a mortgage. 

But my auto score has continuously gone down since February at the rate of about 5 points per month. Is it possible it's because of the age of the account? Side note- the payment is barely above $200/mo since I put a large down payment on the car, and I've been paying $500/mo. Is overpaying hurting my score?

Insight is appreciated. 

[pizzadude]

Do you have any derogatory installment loan history on your reports, auto or otherwise ?   I don't think that you'd be losing points for paying down your loan, unless maybe it's dropping below a certain threshold ?

[greeneyesslo]

I do have an old derog- an auto loan between 3-4 years ago that reported 60+ for 3 months. I caught up on payments but the overdue fees were what was hitting over 60. Tried getting the bank to fix it but they won't. The loan is showing paid and closed on my report. 

The new loan is technically a high balance since I've only paid down $1,800 of a $11,990 loan which puts it around 85% still. But it's a 48-month loan and I've only made 4 payments since the account was opened.

I'm just trying to keep it going up. I noticed with the new Fico 10 and 10T, my EX and TU are reporting about 70 points lower than FICO8 while my EQ stayed the same. I figured both the auto score and 10 might be dipping because of the derogs. It's just strange since my recent payment history is good. My cc usage peaked for 1 month (I pay it mostly off monthly) up to 48% after I made a large purchase because I missed paying before the reporting, but it's back below 10% and that reported a couple weeks ago, yet the auto score still dropped after the 10% was reported.  

The auto score was at 652 when I got the auto loan. Now it's 631. I'm just a bit baffled. I've been working overtime to get my score up and I'm on the cusp of it being in the good category by the end of the year. 

[pizzadude]

My guess is it's the old lates on your closed auto loan and the high utilization on the new auto loan that are dragging down your FICO auto score right now.  

Over time I'd expect it to creep back up, but unless you're going to be applying for financing soon though a lender known to use Auto enhanced scores then I wouldn't worry about it too much 

[SouthJamaica]

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@greeneyesslo wrote:

I refinanced an auto loan back in February 2022 with PenFed since I'm in the rebuilding phase. I have a 2-year clean history of on-time payments and got a good rate. 

That being said, my regular, bankcard, and mortgage scores are continuously going up, up to 10-15 points a month... probably because I've been paying my credit cards and car payments early and regularly, and utilization is under 10%. I don't currently have a mortgage. 

But my auto score has continuously gone down since February at the rate of about 5 points per month. Is it possible it's because of the age of the account? Side note- the payment is barely above $200/mo since I put a large down payment on the car, and I've been paying $500/mo. Is overpaying hurting my score?

Insight is appreciated. 

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I don't know why the auto score would be going down while all the others are going up.

But I'm sure overpaying your monthly payment is not the reason.