I know determining the cause of minor point decline can be difficult but I am a bit puzzled as to what is happening to DW FICO 8 score with EX.
We settled 3 charge offs in 2019, the last being Cap1 which reported Dec 26 still showing a 696 balance against what was a 1927 total. Its just a matter of reporting time for Cap1 to take this to zero.
She has no active CC revolver accounts and I added her to my AMEX BCP account which is 0 balance and 5000 CL. This also reported in December.
Her last collection from our clearing those off also posted in December.
The result of all our work brought EX to 701.
In January that fell 4 points to 697 and in February fell another 4 points to 693.
The mortgage for the home we share is in her name and other than the 3 COs she has perfect payment history on mortgage as well as all her student loans, previous auto loans that are now paid off and closed, etc.
We have brought her student loans down to only 3k balance which we will pay off shortly in the next 5-6 months.
So the only change for January and February reporting periods is additional payments to the student loan side of things to reduce the balance.
I have tried to determine what factor would be causing the slight decline in points for EX and I am at a loss. Cap1 account hasnt reported again since 12-26 and the only other thing that has changed as stated is paying down student loan balance.
I have told her not to worry and wait and see what effect the Cap1 CO to 0 balance will recover in total points once it finally updates.
I am baffled though as to what may be behind the slight declines.
Thus, I am seeking input from all FICO score experts that exist around this here forum....
Any ideas as to what factor(s) may be impacting the slight decline for Jan and Feb?
@satio wrote:I know determining the cause of minor point decline can be difficult but I am a bit puzzled as to what is happening to DW FICO 8 score with EX.
We settled 3 charge offs in 2019, the last being Cap1 which reported Dec 26 still showing a 696 balance against what was a 1927 total. Its just a matter of reporting time for Cap1 to take this to zero.
She has no active CC revolver accounts and I added her to my AMEX BCP account which is 0 balance and 5000 CL. This also reported in December.
Her last collection from our clearing those off also posted in December.
The result of all our work brought EX to 701.
In January that fell 4 points to 697 and in February fell another 4 points to 693.
The mortgage for the home we share is in her name and other than the 3 COs she has perfect payment history on mortgage as well as all her student loans, previous auto loans that are now paid off and closed, etc.
We have brought her student loans down to only 3k balance which we will pay off shortly in the next 5-6 months.
So the only change for January and February reporting periods is additional payments to the student loan side of things to reduce the balance.
I have tried to determine what factor would be causing the slight decline in points for EX and I am at a loss. Cap1 account hasnt reported again since 12-26 and the only other thing that has changed as stated is paying down student loan balance.
I have told her not to worry and wait and see what effect the Cap1 CO to 0 balance will recover in total points once it finally updates.
I am baffled though as to what may be behind the slight declines.
Thus, I am seeking input from all FICO score experts that exist around this here forum....
Any ideas as to what factor(s) may be impacting the slight decline for Jan and Feb?
If she has no credit cards except the AU card, and that card is at zero balance, she might have lost some points from the all-accounts-at-zero penalty.
@Anonymous wrote:
She also needs to get a couple revolvers of her own even if they are secured. And I’ll tell you one more little strategy. Do not pay off the student loans.
If that is her one and only loan, and I don’t know if it is, but if it is, you pay it under 8.9% and you let it ride as long as you can, because you will get bonus points from having an optimized loan. This is calculated in the aggregate so if she has other loans it may not help.
Understood on the revolvers.
The mortgage for the house we live in is in her name as she purchased it before we remarried so I would not expect the payoff of student loans to have a negative effect given that she will still have this active. Is my thinking correct?
I on the other hand, took out a 5 year SSL back in 2019, as I had no active installment and wanted the credit mix boost.
I don't quite know how a settled CO is handled. Heck I don't think we fully know how they are scored from a revolving utilization perspective when open.
Amex is unique in their handing of AU's as they report as a new tradeline without any prior history so really when we are talking FICO scoring benefit they are the last lender I look to boost someone. For actual shared use they are fantastic, but for scoring, pass.
When you are mentioning drops did they occur basically first of month or somewhere interstitially?
I can almost always tell what a movement on my scores involved but there are plenty of things I don't know (see my confusion on EX 2 revolving utilization) so admittedly might not ever get a full answer.
@Anonymous wrote:
Actually she’ll probably lose a couple points because the aggregate Installment utilization will increase.
Well there’s more to it than just Credit mix. If you have a open or closed loan on your record, you have your credit mix points and are in no fear of losing them unless it falls off the report.
However when your aggregate installment utilization falls below 9% you get a bonus and those are the points that people look for!!
Yes, the aggregate installment utilization increase with the student loans completely paid to 0 and the potential for a slight score drop as a result makes sense as it relates to DW overall profile. Thank you for this data point.
In my situation, my SSL with NFCU has been paid down below 9% since the second day of opening it and I did realize the bonus points for it as a result both from a credit mix (though I did have closed installments, mortgage, etc within my profile).