FICO Causes and Effects (What Happened, and How Did it Affect Your FICO?)

[RobertEG]

Of course, lenders may, and often do, take into account factors other than raw FICO score when making a lending decision.  FICO is a statistical measure only of what it purports to be, generic repayment risk analysis, and not any overall measure of worthiness in any specific credit decision. It is just one factor that has been proven to be of statistical validity, and thus of interest to lenders,  for what it measures... not income, but primarily one's history of paying debt.  FICO scoring is not perfect, as demonstrated by the fact that FICO has continually revised its algorithm to take into account, for example, that people now do more credit shopping than in the past to secure the benefit of low, introductory credit cards and rates, or shopping around for a mortgage or auto loan.  The commercial FICO scores to which we are privy are based only upon the generic FICO algorithm, for the mass populatin, and what any creditor may view may be another version of the FICO score based upon other criteria specified by the lendor.   And, of course, any other criteria that they may choose to consider, as long as they are not discriminatory based on race, age, sex, etc.  FICO is not the begin and end all, and does not purport to try to consider all lending factors.

[gwennieb]

Ok everyone here is my problem trying to get 100 % financing on mortgage my current fico score are TU 660 with one paid collection from  2005 no other negatives showing one of my credit cards with a balance of 110 credit limit 350  EQ 676 one limited two card showing balance of 110 credit limit 350 no past dues no negative just got a 79 point increase for paying off Jcpenny and credit line was increased no negatives reporting Ex as of today is 621 showing all account paid no lates and one paid collection  from 2005 score went down 8 points when all accounts reported paid . I am so confused.....LOL trying to get my score to 680 for the 100% financing don't know what else to do and confused why experian score went down instead of up compared all reports don't know what else I can do to bring score up any suggestions ..... I have to add also this forum has been such a great help to me when I started out trying repair started out with scores TU 520 EX 519 ex 535 with the help of reading all I could read I have greatly improved my scores and am very thankful to all that post the information that you get here I am hoping to make the 700 hundred club soon but I am at a stand still limited two told me that they sent the zero balance information to all three CRA on 3-6-08 but experian the only one showing it paid I am a little nervous since experian score dropped once it showed paid  I am afraid the other two are going to drop too or should it go up ?

[MidnightVoice]

Went from 9% util to <1% util.

No effect

Scores in the 780s

[Anonymous]

I just got a shock.

I got an e-mail today that my credit score went down 18pts, from 730 to 712...the reason given was vague.

I have 11 personal credit cards (one card has a credit limits up to 55.5k) and utilization on all cards from 0 to 30%, that i keep a close eye on.

Then i needed to make a business charge, so i used one of my personal cards w/ 0 balance so i could know the $$$$ used separate from my personal charge.

But, stupid me, i picked a card w/ a 3.5k limit for a 1.7k charge....i.e. over 50% utilization. Last Tuesday (Mar11) was the statement date, so I and the world found out about it Mar12, my credit dropped 18 pts on Mar14.

What i should have done is pay it off or to 1-9% utilization before Mar11.

[marty56]

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MidnightVoice wrote:

Went from 9% util to <1% util.

No effect

Scores in the 780s

---

How many accounts have a balance?

For me, I have a mortgage, car payment and if I show a balance on more then one CC, my score goes down.

I had $54 report on my Sams card with a 3100 CL and my EQ score droped a couple of points.  going from say 720 to 719 would be a big deal as well as from 756 to 760.

[haulingthescoreup]

Added 5 CC accounts and 1 auto loan. Only 3 of 5 CC's have reported so far.

EQ dropped 14 points (should be higher --one old account is being disputed)
TU dropped 54 points
EX dropped 75 points

whew!

[MidnightVoice]

---

marty56 wrote:

---

MidnightVoice wrote:

Went from 9% util to <1% util.

No effect

Scores in the 780s

---

How many accounts have a balance?

For me, I have a mortgage, car payment and if I show a balance on more then one CC, my score goes down.

I had $54 report on my Sams card with a 3100 CL and my EQ score droped a couple of points.  going from say 720 to 719 would be a big deal as well as from 756 to 760.

---

Well, my mortgage and Heloc always have a balance.  And of a total of  7 other cards usually two or three are Zero

[Anonymous]

Current situation:

TU    590

EX    547

EQ   528

I went through two years of custody battle with ex-boyfriend and let my credit take a hit.  A mortgage broker in 2004 told me to close my credit cards because I had too many and the bank would not have looked favorably at me because I had too much available debt even though I kept the utilization to 10%.  These were the paid/never late cards below. 

My score dropped a few hundred points to around 500 and then dropped again to around 350 when I paid my lawyer almost $10K and my new landlord $5K instead of my accounts and they went into collections.  I keep wondering about that mortgage broker. 

Our children are stable now so I am focusing on getting things back on track. 

I have:

6          Open Revolving Credit Accounts with 2% utilization of $2560 total limit

3           Open Revolving Credit Accounts that have not reported a total credit limit increase

             of $350

7          Closed Installment Accounts with $4516 owed for a voluntary surrender Auto Loan listed

            as charge-off/never late

4          Paid collection accounts with $1822 owed, that still have to report as paid with

            $0 balances in April

1          Paid Collection Account that already was updated 6 months ago and does not report. 

            months.

11        Closed Revolving Credit Accounts listed as Paid/Never Late

4          Closed Revolving Credit Accounts listed as Charge-off with a balance

            of $3735 to be reported as paid.

1          Closed Revolving Credit Account listed as 30 days Late

1          Closed Revolving Credit Account listed as Lost/Stolen Card

1          Closed Revolving Credit Account listed as 120 days late

I also have

1    inquiry on Transunion

8    inquiries on Equifax

20  inquiries on Experian

My oldest account is from 1995 and my newest account is from a collections agency in 2007.  I paid everything off other than the $4516 Auto Loan.  The Auto Loan has not reported and was charged off in 2005. 

I'll wait to see what my score does in April and then May.  If anyone has any other suggestions of what I could try to improve, it would be greatly appreciated.

Jodi

It's always hardest before the summit.

Message Edited by shawtycat on 03-30-2008 05:31 PM

[marty56]

A $54 balance on a 3100CL Sam,s card just reported as PIF and my EQ scoe went up 1 point.  The pnly accounts on my CR that report a balance is my Visa card, car loan and mortgage.

[Anonymous]

A CC aged to one year = no longer a new account and the inq aged to the point of no longer hurting.  My score went up 7 points.