Fair Isaac is NOT fair

[Anonymous]

First, I'd like to quote from your first post. "Let me reiterate.  We did nothing to create this problem, except NOT to use available credit."  That's not true, and I believe a good deal of your frustration is in holding on to this false belief.

Based on your statement, "Our remaining cards all had about 50% credit usage except one that is used for business and is always close to the maximum". it's far more likely that your utilization on individual accounts and/or the number of accounts reporting a balance created your issues. 

The FICO reason codes are posted as a sticky, or you can google them.  They provide some of the most transparent insights into the FICO algorithm.  If you pull your credit reports here at myfico.com; you'll find what's hurting your score and what's helping your score.  That's a real snapshot into what's happening and will help you understand where your creditors are coming from.

And, I'd like to respond to your comment that "you can sure tell which posts are done by people who probably work for Fair Isaac and those who are "just folks" like me."  There's a good knowledge base on these boards.  I love being able to come here and pick the brain cells of many individuals who have gone through the school of hard knocks and/or work hard to understand it better,  I'm glad they're willing to share their knowledge with me and you.  There's not a single post on this thread that was done by people who work for Fair Isaac.  Everyone (except the visitors - I can't vouch for them) is a real person like you.  With a real job and real family, who voluntarily post here to help their fellow peeps.  Even, and maybe especially, those who are flustered by FICO - we all have been at some point.

Sort of reminds me of one of my charming family members, "I'm upset and I want to be upset.  Don't bother me with facts!!"

[marty56]

While many of us (me included) have been hurt by past mistakes and have to wait 7 to 10 years for the mistake to go away, we all have the opertunity to improve our credit score and while we may not like the rules that are used, they are simple to follow and when situations happen in life when we can't, we know what to do to correct the problem.

I don't work for FICO or any of the 3 CRAs and I don't consider myself a fanboy of credit scores or CRAs.  I'm just a guy who wants an 800 credit score and to help others not make the same mistakes I did credit wise.  My desire for a 800 credit score is both personal and business.

[Anonymous]

"Charming" response.  Thank you.

[smallfry]

I screwed up royally in the past but my situation was easily avoidable. Some who lose jobs or have extraordinary med expenses well I feel for you. As far as gaming the FICO system it really is not that obtuse. Basically all you need to do is not apply for too much credit. Pay all your bills on time. In this age of the computer there is no excuse to "miss" a payment unless you just don't have the money. Don't let too many credit cards report and don't let too much of your credit limits report. There are a few other tricks but basically those are the guidelines. After having played the game for a few years now I have to say that while the scoring system is not perfect it really is pretty fair. 

[marty56]

The real issue here and one of the major functions of this forum is to help people improve their credit score.  Even a wealthy person still has a credit score at in can impact their ability to purchase a cell phone plan or cable TV, or even employment.   Unless something bad happens in our life like loosing our job or a big medical expense, none of us here would probably ever consider paying late again and those of us here who have a major derog on their CR  wish they didn't have to wait 7 long years for it to fall off.   We just have to serve our sentence by waiting  if we weren't lucky enough to get parole via GW or the CRA deleting the TLs by mistake.

Everyone has an equal chance to improve their credit or mess it up and even improve it again.  That's as fair as anyone could ask in life.

[happy0510]

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@marty56 wrote:

The real issue here and one of the major functions of this forum is to help people improve their credit score.  Even a wealthy person still has a credit score at in can impact their ability to purchase a cell phone plan or cable TV, or even employment.   Unless something bad happens in our life like loosing our job or a big medical expense, none of us here would probably ever consider paying late again and those of us here who have a major derog on their CR  wish they didn't have to wait 7 long years for it to fall off.   We just have to serve our sentence by waiting  if we weren't lucky enough to get parole via GW or the CRA deleting the TLs by mistake.

Everyone has an equal chance to improve their credit or mess it up and even improve it again.  That's as fair as anyone could ask in life.

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AMEN!! I have been lurking these boards for a few years now.  If it weren't for the brilliance of Mr. Fair & Issac, our borrowing system wouldn't be what it is today, imo. This is the first time I have seen someone suggest a class action lawsuit or something negative about FICO scoring.  I would assume this would account for .00025% of the entire fico community population which leads me to think...."hmmmmmm".

[blacklotus]

"FICO never has been, and has never claimed to be, a rating of your "credit worthiness."  Creditors make that decision, not FICO."

I agree here.  I don't think that a person is their Fico Score.

[GregB]

I agree that a good creditor uses FICO scoring and a lot of other information to determine if the applicant gets or continues to get a loan. These are mostly a step down from the older systems of meeting your banker in person, who made a detailed determination of your credit worthiness. Many creditors are less than "good" and relying even more heavily on your FICO score. This is a problem with the creditors and not the FICO scoring system. Any "score" based system is going to be based upon generalities.

BTW: how many here are furious when Amex, or whoever, wants to do a financial review to get a better idea of credit worthiness instead of just softing your FICO?

What is "fair" about the FICO system is that we can learn how it works and keep ourselves out of trouble. The OP could have leaned more about the system and likely kept himself from having the problems. Unfortunately, life is complicated and this is unlikely to be a priority until a problem happens. It would be nice not to have to keep track of this but the reality is that almost all of us need good credit for a substantial part of our life. If he takes advantage of the knowledge here, he can likely be in a far better position to avoid the next problem. I think it is likely that most of the people on this forum arrived here due to some problem with their credit, even if they did little or nothing to cause it.

I can tell you from the information on this forum that not using a CC from BofA and Citibank was a really good way to get them cancelled. BofA bought up several of the many CCs that I use for business and personal use. I only haveonefrom Citbank - Sears/CBSD. It  has a poor interest rate so is no good to carry a balance. It has poor rewards so I don't use it for normal use. I do have to be careful to use it regularly. I would never had known that without this forum.

I understand the OP is angry at the "system", but I think BofA and Citibank are the bad guys here followed by the other creditors that lowered limits JUST because the reduced CL dropped his FICO. It would be nice if FICO added an additional parameter looking at WHO reduced a person's CL. That might also be accomplished by the creditors themselves if they could flag a lowered CL as being done primarily due to the policies of the creditor, having little/nothing to do with the person whose CL is lowered.

[smallfry]

Don't carry balances. Don't obtain more cards than you can reasonably give enuf use to that the banks are satisfied with. Don't buy garbage you do not need.

[Jazzzy]

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@GregB wrote:

BTW: how many here are furious when Amex, or whoever, wants to do a financial review to get a better idea of credit worthiness instead of just softing your FICO?

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My husband is self-employed, so we're used to having to provide IRS documents. We had to provide them for PenFed when we got our VISA and to AmEx when we requested a credit line increase after only a couple of months of being a cardholder. Some here in the forums seemed to infer that we should have been insulted. We weren't. It's just business...it's not personal.