FICO scores have become so unreliable

[Anonymous]

---

@Peter1142 wrote:
Is the 14 day thing rolling? I.e. what happens when you have one at Day 1, Day 9, and Day 17.

---

Let's assume a few things in this conversation: that we are always talking about mortgage inquiries, that they are correctly coded as such in your report, and that 30 days have elapsed on all of them (remember that all mortgage inquiries are ignored for the first 30 days).

Given that, you would have two scorable inquiries in what you describe.  You could add an inquiry at Day 2, another at Day 6, and two more at Day 16 and you should still have exactly two scorable inquiries.  Basically one inquiry in the Day 1-14 Day period and another in the Day 4-17 period.

[Peter1142]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Peter1142 wrote:
Is the 14 day thing rolling? I.e. what happens when you have one at Day 1, Day 9, and Day 17.

---

Let's assume a few things in this conversation: that we are always talking about mortgage inquiries, that they are correctly coded as such in your report, and that 30 days have elapsed on all of them (remember that all mortgage inquiries are ignored for the first 30 days).

Given that, you would have two scorable inquiries in what you describe.  You could add an inquiry at Day 2, another at Day 6, and two more at Day 16 and you should still have exactly two scorable inquiries.  Basically one inquiry in the Day 1-14 Day period and another in the Day 4-17 period.

---

They are coded, I checked.

In case anyone is wondering, that AU Card with 3 30 day lates in the last few years was removed within 48 hours on both Equifax and Transunion when disputed. Score boost of 30+ Points.

[Thomas_Thumb]

---

@Revelate wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

FICO 98 has a 14-day de-duplication window.  FICO 98 is the model that is used for the Experian mortgage score (aka FICO 2).

All later FICO models appear to have a de-duplication window of 45 days.

https://www.fico.com/blogs/risk-compliance/a-better-way-to-treat-inquiries/

I wish that link definitively stated that the switch from 14 days to 45 occurred in 2004 at the release of FICO 04 (the TU and EQ mortgage scores).  It gets close to saying that but I couldn't see where it said that for sure.

The practical upshot, however, is that when you are buying a house the smartest and simplest approach is to assume that all three FICO scores have a 14-day window.   That's because we know for sure that the EX mortgage score uses 14 days -- so why not go with the most restrictive?

Bear in mind that there is a different 30-day window that applies to all FICO models.  This other window says that FICO ignores a mortgage inquiry for its first 30 days.  That has nothing to do with de-duplication.

Finally bear in mind that you should look carefully at the reports themselves.  FICO bases its de-duplication effort on assuming all mortgage inquiries are correctly coded as such on the report.

---

There was an old TU datasheet describing their models that said TU FICO 4 was a 45 day de-dupe; I don't have the link handy unfortunately anymore... I never did see anything explicit regarding EQ FICO 5 though, but I agree go with 14 days FTW cause that's the most restrictive.

---

From TransUnion: