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FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

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Anonymous
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FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

Read through a ton of great posts regarding codes and mortgage scores but wasn't able to nail down -- what does "short" mean in a mortgage score context?

 

Via @Anonymous 's excellent scoring primer (specific to F8):

B. AAoA - Average Age of Accounts is a scoring factor
It appears these awards are greater on young scorecards, meaning those whose AoOA is < 3 years old for Score 8.
Awards seem to be at multiples of six months
- 3-15 point annual increase
- Maximum award believed to occur by 90 months.
 
There are 12 and 18 month thresholds on young scorecards, unconfirmed reports of thresholds at 24 and 30 months, and likely thresholds at 60, 66, 72, 78, 84 and 90 months. (K-in-Boston confirmed and reconfirmed the significant threshold at 84 months on a clean/thick/mature/new account profile.) I'm sure there are more. Link with links. 
 
Clearly 9/5/4/2 has different thresholds... or different because I'm not on a clean card?
 
On my latest 3B -
AoOA: EQ 204 / TU 204 / EX 200
AAoA: EQ 112 / TU 111 / EX 92
AoYA: EQ 8 / TU 8 / EX 8 (installment - car loan; 91% util; only recent inquiry)
Score is 736 across all 3Bs.
 
OA is revolving credit (CC). First installment was well over 10 years ago. Mix rated Exceptional.
Total mix (open & closed): 12 revolving, 10 installment, 8 bank cards.
 
F9/5/4/2 all report "You have a short credit history." as a negative impact. "In your case, the age of your oldest account and/or the average age of your accounts is relatively low."
How long are they looking for, in order to not have this reason code show up?
 
I'm definitely on a dirty scorecard, as I have a 60D from 2 years ago; *THINK* D1 - dirty/delinquent/mature but need to research further.
 
Aside - Interesting that I don't get a "new account" negative for the 8 mth old loan. (Probably because I'm on a dirty card?)
 
Thanks for any tips/guidance!
15 REPLIES 15
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

I think you will max out the given score before it goes away.  Nearly a decade later its still my first reason code when I'm in a top 8 scorecard.

 




        
Message 2 of 16
Anonymous
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Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

Where does that code show up for you?  Is it in the 4th slot?  Based on your age of accounts factors, whatever is triggering it IMO isn't significant and therefore I can't see it impacting your scores in a big way at this point.  I would think your AAoA is greater than the top threshold, but possibly not AoOA.  Also to possibly be considered would be AAoRA, or a metric specific to just one credit type rather than an average of all.

Message 3 of 16
Anonymous
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Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?


@Revelate wrote:

I think you will max out the given score before it goes away.  Nearly a decade later its still my first reason code when I'm in a top 8 scorecard.

 


Interesting... but glad that it doesn't cap score growth. Sounds like it's best to ignore and focus on other codes?

Message 4 of 16
Anonymous
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Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

I think it's always best to ignore age-related negative reason codes since by definition there's pretty much nothing that can be done to overcome them outside of allowing the passage of time.  The only advice really to give is to not open new accounts unless you need them.

Message 5 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?


@Anonymous wrote:

Where does that code show up for you?  Is it in the 4th slot?  Based on your age of accounts factors, whatever is triggering it IMO isn't significant and therefore I can't see it impacting your scores in a big way at this point.  I would think your AAoA is greater than the top threshold, but possibly not AoOA.  Also to possibly be considered would be AAoRA, or a metric specific to just one credit type rather than an average of all.


Yep - exactly. 4th slot. Is the order indicative of importance/impact?

 

My AAoRA is 101 months/over 8 years. Just bank cards would be 111 months/just over 9 years.

 

Correction: Mortgage scores are EQ 700, TU 699, EX 721. The 736s are my F9s.

 

The only new account I'm planning for is a mortgage but not on a timeline. Have to figure out where I want to live first. Ha. Otherwise, just cleaning up and growing. I'm just trying to assess when (roughly) may be a good time score-wise. As I have 7 negatives at the moment, going to knock those down but there's only 2 I can impact. The other 5 will just require time -- up to 5 years. I'll definitely take out a mortgage before then.

 

1. 60D derog

2. "recently" missed a payment, *cough* 24 mths ago *cough*

3. consumer finance account

4. short credit history

5. heavy use of revolving credit -- prio 1

6. missed payments 

7. too many accounts with balances -- already down to 2/8 from 6/8 in last report

Message 6 of 16
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Where does that code show up for you?  Is it in the 4th slot?  Based on your age of accounts factors, whatever is triggering it IMO isn't significant and therefore I can't see it impacting your scores in a big way at this point.  I would think your AAoA is greater than the top threshold, but possibly not AoOA.  Also to possibly be considered would be AAoRA, or a metric specific to just one credit type rather than an average of all.


Yep - exactly. 4th slot. Is the order indicative of importance/impact?

 

My AAoRA is 101 months/over 8 years. Just bank cards would be 111 months/just over 9 years.

 

Correction: Mortgage scores are EQ 700, TU 699, EX 721. The 736s are my F9s.

 

The only new account I'm planning for is a mortgage but not on a timeline. Have to figure out where I want to live first. Ha. Otherwise, just cleaning up and growing. I'm just trying to assess when (roughly) may be a good time score-wise. As I have 7 negatives at the moment, going to knock those down but there's only 2 I can impact. The other 5 will just require time -- up to 5 years. I'll definitely take out a mortgage before then.

 

1. 60D derog

2. "recently" missed a payment, *cough* 24 mths ago *cough*

3. consumer finance account

4. short credit history

5. heavy use of revolving credit -- prio 1

6. missed payments 

7. too many accounts with balances -- already down to 2/8 from 6/8 in last report


You don't get more than 4 reason codes in any accurate source.  I think something is getting conflated in a CMS presentation here as I find it unlikely for literally anyone to have short credit history below CFA.




        
Message 7 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?


@Revelate wrote:


You don't get more than 4 reason codes in any accurate source.  I think something is getting conflated in a CMS presentation here as I find it unlikely for literally anyone to have short credit history below CFA.


Back when my file was a bit weaker I used to often get 5 (legit) negative reason statements on my Discover CLI denial letters.  Discover is somewhat of an exception though IMO, as they're one of the only sources that I know of that gives negative reason statements for TU8 up to a score of 849.

Message 8 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?

@Anonymous 5 is the maximum with inquiry being thrown in for the fifth one. i'm sure you're giving us codes from multiple versions. I would love to know what the highest threshold is that triggers that code as well, however as stated, you will probably have too high of a score before it goes away.

Thank you for the kind words. Yes 9/5/4/2 may have different thresholds. I have started sections for those versions in the Primer. There are definitely differences.

That’s correct, you will not get a new account reason code on a dirty card. Since you have a 60 day late, you’ll be in a dirty card for 7 years on 8/9.

However you will graduate from a dirty to a clean card on 5/4/2 when the most recent 60+ day late turns 24 months old. you said it just did right? If so you should see the new account code pop up under the mortgage Scores I believe.

It would not pop up on 8/9 even if you were clean because it’s a loan. On 8/9 revolvers trigger that code, but on 5/4/2 it appears any new account does.

Message 9 of 16
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Mortgage Scores - "Short Credit History" Code?


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous 5 is the maximum with inquiry being thrown in for the fifth one. i'm sure you're giving us codes from multiple versions. I would love to know what the highest threshold is that triggers that code as well, however as stated, you will probably have too high of a score before it goes away.

Thank you for the kind words. Yes 9/5/4/2 may have different thresholds. I have started sections for those versions in the Primer. There are definitely differences.

That’s correct, you will not get a new account reason code on a dirty card. Since you have a 60 day late, you’ll be in a dirty card for 7 years on 8/9.

However you will graduate from a dirty to a clean card on 5/4/2 when the most recent 60+ day late turns 24 months old. you said it just did right? If so you should see the new account code pop up under the mortgage Scores I believe.

It would not pop up on 8/9 even if you were clean because it’s a loan. On 8/9 revolvers trigger that code, but on 5/4/2 it appears any new account does.


Well wait a second, a 60D late on F8 appears to go to the same top 8 scorecard at the 2 year mark that a 30D late sits in or at least I think that is the case.

 

From BOFA I have my second reason code as "length of time revolving accounts have been established"

 

AFAIK that one doesn't exist at all in the bottom 4.  First one is Number of accounts with deliquency, which is different than serious derogatory.  Not sure but I don't think we can unilaterally state which scorecard at this point but while not one of the pretty scorecards I think it is top 8.

 

I'm not even certain that a 779 is possible in the bottom 4 scorecards certainly not in the serious derogatory one where we had tax liens and similar go from 750 to 850 when they came off IIRC, which oddly suggests on one random datapoint that we had, that maybe a 90D shifts at some point in time too.




        
Message 10 of 16
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