FICO Frustration

[Anonymous]

Trying to improve your FICO score is so frustrating. I just had a credit card payment post and my score dropped by 3 points. I know that is not much, but it is frustrating to see when all you have done is made payments on your bills, your accounts have aged, nothing has dropped off, and haven't applied for anything new. 

[Anonymous]

Your credit card payment posting did not drop your score 3 points.  Your score drop came from something else.  The only time a CC payment can drop a Fico score is if it was your only balance and you went from 1 card with a balance to 0 cards with [reported] balances.  The typical drop associated with the above would be around 15-20 points, so I imagine this was not the case with your file.

[Anonymous]

That is what perplexes me. I have not charged anything on my cards in a year. All I have done is made payments. I have not applied for anything and nothing has fallen off. 

[tricie17]

It is more than frustrating for example, I had a 613 on experian, lost points to 607 and recently only gained 3 pts back.  One thing I learned is that the algorythims are based from buying, paying back and looking at numbers from months back for average weighing.  One thing your scores will rebound and that frustration will turn to smiles  

[Anonymous]

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@tricie17 wrote:

One thing I learned is that the algorythims are based from buying, paying back and looking at numbers from months back for average weighing.   

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The above statement is not true at all. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That is what perplexes me. I have not charged anything on my cards in a year. All I have done is made payments. I have not applied for anything and nothing has fallen off. 

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Perhaps you can provide a bit more profile data.  Age of youngest account, oldest account and average age of accounts?  How many total revolvers do you have and what are the balances/limits on them?  How many inquiries per bureau in the last 365 days?  Any negative items at all on your CR?  Any installment loans and if so, what their current balance(s) to original balance(s)?

There is always a reason for a score shift and often the reason isn't easy to see.

[AndySoCal]

The basic criteria to recieve a FICO score is this

An account open for at least six months.

The trade line cannot be in dispute or reported as deceased.

Trade line reported /activity in the last six months

You  meet the criteria for getting a score I understand that.

If a consumer has a small credit file that has only 2 credit cards that are open all other accounts are closed for over a year. The consumer decides to pay cash only and stops using the credit cards.  The consumer will after six months or more will stop getting a score due there are no accounts meeting the  FICO score model criteria (FICO score 9002).  My suggestion is look at your credit report and see if you have any cards that have no activity or the lender has not reported due to the lack of activity on the account for at least six months. If you do take that card and use it for a small purchase dollar amount does not matter. Pay the balance before the statement cuts. This way the activity on the account will be the only difference when the account reports. Check your score after the card reports ot the bureau.

[tricie17]

@Anonymous So I guess my using credit cards in a sufficient manner and paying down for small utilizations along with the Bureaus paying attention to history, late payments and such.  Installment loans, having a number of tradelines is not calculated with scores.  If this is the case I should have stellar credit.

[Anonymous]

You can look up a graphic of the Fico pie to see what the scoring sectors are.  Most of what you said like buying, paying back and an average of [possibly payment?] history are not scoring factors.   

[AndySoCal]

@Anonymous 

@tricie17 

The link below is from a PDF file produced by FICO. Please read page 7 and the length of credit history

https://ficoscore.com/wp-content/uploads/Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-FICO-Scores.pdf 

This related to my previous post