Fico Score Dropped 40 Points in 1 Month

[Gmood1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gmood1 wrote:

No installment loan and very little use of your credit is the reason for the drop. Credit is one of those things, if you don't use it, you lose it.

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Thank you. That makes sense to me. However, I always imagine it will be like a gradual process (like you lose a few points each month), it a 40 points drop within a month common?

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From data posted here, normally you would have lost it the month after it reported closed. 

Strange it hasn't dropped until recently. Yes, the drop normally happens all at once.

An active shared secured loan would return the points.

[Anonymous]

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@arkane wrote:

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@19eighty5 wrote:

You should be somewhat concerned about the T-Mobile inquiry. I would look into contacting T-Mobile to make sure there are no new accounts open under your social. I would also look into locking your credit report for a few months, especially since it doesn't seem like you'll be applying for anything in the coming months.

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I agree the T-Mobile inquiry is definitely alarming.

I'm also going to suggest you pull your NCTUE report right away and perhaps proactively place a security freeze on that as well. Especially since if all they did was open a phone line under your name, then that would never show up on your credit reports (until it gets sent to collections).

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Thank you very much for the advise. I have never open a phone line or cable or have any utlility bills under my name, will I have a report in this case? And should I still require a freeze?

[Anonymous]

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@Gmood1 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gmood1 wrote:

No installment loan and very little use of your credit is the reason for the drop. Credit is one of those things, if you don't use it, you lose it.

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Thank you. That makes sense to me. However, I always imagine it will be like a gradual process (like you lose a few points each month), it a 40 points drop within a month common?

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From data posted here, normally you would have lost it the month after it reported closed. 

Strange it hasn't dropped until recently. Yes, the drop normally happens all at once.

An active shared secured loan would return the points.

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Thank you so much for the advise. If I do not take out a loan, but start use my credit cards more, will it stop the score from dropping further?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the reply.

Do you mean that I am penalized for not borrowing any loans? If I continue to not having loans, will my score drop further?

I read that having a loan will help you build up your credit, but I do not know that not having one will penalize you this much......it just does not make sense to me.

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The FICO 8 scoring model seems to penalize people who don't have any open installment loans. Is that rational? IMHO, no it is not. But there it is.  I'm sure your scores will go back up though if you do other things right.

Meanwhile it's not at all clear whether other FICO scoring models have the same quirk, or if they do, to what extent. I'm about to explore that myself, having just paid off my only open installment loan.

[Gmood1]

Yes, they'll return very slowly. Probably not as high as they once were. If you're above 750. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll still qualify for the same rates as someone in the 800 range.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the reply.

Do you mean that I am penalized for not borrowing any loans? If I continue to not having loans, will my score drop further?

I read that having a loan will help you build up your credit, but I do not know that not having one will penalize you this much......it just does not make sense to me.

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The FICO 8 scoring model seems to penalize people who don't have any open installment loans. Is that rational? IMHO, no it is not. But there it is.  I'm sure your scores will go back up though if you do other things right.

Meanwhile it's not at all clear whether other FICO scoring models have the same quirk, or if they do, to what extent. I'm about to explore that myself, having just paid off my only open installment loan.

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Thanks. At I am actually fine with my current score, just want to make sure it is not something malicious.

[Anonymous]

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@Gmood1 wrote:
Yes, they'll return very slowly. Probably not as high as they once were. If you're above 750. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll still qualify for the same rates as someone in the 800 range.

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Appreciate the help. I guess it is a blessing in disguise, if the score didn't drop, I won't check my credit report, and won't be able to discover that someone is trying to open T-Mobile account using my info.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous

No recent non-mortgage balance information

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Hey guys.  Maybe I'm reading this incorrectly here, or perhaps everyone is overlooking the "non" in the #1 reason statement above that the OP is getting?

If the statement is saying no recent non-mortgage balance information, couldn't that be a more difficult way of saying "no recent revolving credit balance information?"  I'm wondering if the OP is taking a ~20 point hit from a quite standard "no revolving credit use" factor, even if the reason statement is presenting that in a different way other than what we're used to seeing?

I know the OP said he's got a CC and utilization is around 10% typically, which to me means he's got a balance and is making payments.  I'm not sure how that could not be seen as activity and no doubt his balance would be changing from month to month. 

Anyone else think this could be part of the problem?

[Anonymous]

Good point. You may be right. op also says 

"I only use one credit card (rather sparingly too) right now and stick with cash most of the times"

so possibly AZ. The two times I have been AZ my EQ has dropped 23pts, EX & TU drop 16. When I go AZEO EQ up 23, EX & TU up 16.

I only hit AZ for 1mo. Would it accumulate loss over months?

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous

No recent non-mortgage balance information

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Hey guys.  Maybe I'm reading this incorrectly here, or perhaps everyone is overlooking the "non" in the #1 reason statement above that the OP is getting?

If the statement is saying no recent non-mortgage balance information, couldn't that be a more difficult way of saying "no recent revolving credit balance information?"  I'm wondering if the OP is taking a ~20 point hit from a quite standard "no revolving credit use" factor, even if the reason statement is presenting that in a different way other than what we're used to seeing?

I know the OP said he's got a CC and utilization is around 10% typically, which to me means he's got a balance and is making payments.  I'm not sure how that could not be seen as activity and no doubt his balance would be changing from month to month. 

Anyone else think this could be part of the problem?

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[sarge12]

I often see it posted that fico penalizes for various things, but that is not exactly what is happening. A credit score is a numerical representation of how trustworthy someone is to repay debts. If you were to have friends requesting to borrow money from you, which of the following would you trust most to pay you back.

1) The person who has borrowed from many others you know, and never pay them back.

2) The person who has never borrowed from anyone you know of.

3) The person who has borrowed from many others you know, and always paid them back exactly when they promised they would.

While being out of debt is great, and from your point of view makes it very easy to repay any future debt, it just gives the lender less recent credit behavior to use in a decision on how trustworthy you are to repay debts. It is not that you have done anything to indicate you are not trustworthy, you just look like the person who never borrows, so the lender has less recent credit behavior to base his decision to lend on. As in all things, failure to keep promises breeds dis-trust, never making promises gives no evidence to know if you are trustworthy, and making promises and keeping them builds trust. The person with the highest scores has built trust. Lenders do not know everything in your life, and no recent debt could mean it will be easy to repay debt, or it could mean you have become a drug addict and ran out of money to get a fix. The lender has no evidence to know either way.