FICO Score Simulator Oddity

[Anonymous]

On the simulator here one of my scores decreases when I pick the credit line increase option. I don't understand why that would happen unless the simulator is assuming a hard pull, but that seems like a silly assumption. Any ideas on what's going on?

[Anonymous]

Simulators are garbage, that's what's going on, IMO.  While this simulator may say your score may decrease, another simulator may say it will increase.  From my experience they are all incredibly inconsistent and cannot be relied on in the least.

[Glen_M]

The only thing they're good at simulating are the ones you don't need a simulator to figure out.

Add inquiries or new accounts, it'll go down.  Pay your bills on time, it will go up.  Everything else it will tell you is probably nonsense.

[Anonymous]

I sort of see it as the opposite with paying your bills on time.  From my perspective, it's pay your bills on time and you're payment history sector of the FICO pie will continue to be maximized... that is, if you were already doing all you could (clean bucket) in that category, paying your bills on time will simply keep you there.  My take on it is that if you don't pay your bills on time, your score will go down.  Perhaps that's a glass half full / glass half empty type argument, but that's how I see it anyway.