Fico Score did not improve after 7 month credit card activity

[jamie123]

I was just wondering how high your scores already are. It sounds to me like you have really good credit now and it becomes harder to raise scores once they are already really good.

There are really only 3 brackets to consider for a mortgage and they are:

680 to 699 = Average Credit rates of 3.278%

700 to 759 = Good Credit rates of 3.101%

760 to 850 = Excellent Credit rates of 2.879%

Are you really close to jumping into the next bracket?

How many points are we talking about?

Oh...We are all anonymous here and most of us have our scores posted in our signatures. If we know a person's score we can give much more accurate advice. Trying to give advice without knowing the score is like trying to tie your shoe with one hand. You might be able to do it, but it sure looks better and is faster with two hands.

[llecs]

The FICO score is complex. Very complex. Your score is dependent on everyone else's score and everyone else is dependent on yours. FICO added scoring buckets within each FICO score. Ever have that professor in college that graded on a scale? You can be in class and get the highest score at 80%. If the professor is grading on a sliding scale, you effectively got an "A" in class with a lower grade. Same goes with FICO. If the economy tanks and everyone does bad, not everyone's score will drop accordingly. 

Buckets are a good thing. Some folks are new to credit. Some have years of history. Some have a BK reporting. Some have baddies. And so on. Scoring buckets make it so that someone with a 30-yr history isn't being compared directly to someone with only a year history, or that someone with a BK and baddies isn't compared directly with someone with a spotless history. That's why you'll see some gain points when a new CC is added and some lose when a new CC is added, or someone proclaims a 70 pt drop when their last baddie fell vs. someone saying they only gained a few when their last baddie fell. They aren't scored together because their profiles are different.

There are a dozen or so buckets. What they are aren't entirely clear. You cannot be rebucketed while accounts are in dispute and we know that util does not factor into util, though score impact will vary on improved util depending on your bucket. We know there's a bucket for folks with a BK. There's a bucket for those with major baddies. There's a bucket for short and new histories, and conversely for uber-long credit histories. The rest is speculation. You can only be in one bucket at a time. For example, if you have major baddies, you cannot be rebucketed until the last baddie drops.

So, in your case, if length of history isn't "Great", and is on the negative side, it means, on average, more people have a longer history than you do. With time that'll improve. Within the pos/neg scoring reasons, it ranks them in order from very worst to not as bad on the neg. side, and very great to not as great on the pos side. If the pos/neg reasons moved around overnight it likely means you were rebucketed which sets you up for a higher score down the road, as compared to not being in the new bucket you are in now.

ETA...I'll admit I don't memorize every single post either. This thread is long to re-read each time. It's easy for poster like Jaime and myself to forget the details. But the above is a synopsis and hope it helps.

[fico64]

Dear jamie123,

My station in life is that I'm retired, age 66. My scores are good verging on very good. Equifax is the most conservative. In several posts back, I explained that I want to sell my home and obtain a new mortgage . That is why I want my scores to be the best they can be. 

[fico64]

Thank you. If you re-read my comment, I simply can't understand this scoring. I deal with logic.

Botom line, 35 days ago, my report said that my credit history was great, today it was downgraded to very good.  Today my report lists my 20 years, 5 months credit history as a negative, 35 days ago, my report  listed this credit history as a positive.

Makes so sense to me and defies logic.

[jamie123]

FICO can be difficult to dissect at times.

I will try and explain my logic about multiple credit cards versus one credit card.

Person #1 has 1 credit card in good standing that has reported for 12 months. He has 12 good marks on his credit report.

Person #2 has 3 credit cards in good standing that have reported for 12 months. He has 36 good marks on his credit report.

Which person would you rather lend money to?

This is even more evident as time goes on.

Person #1 has 1 credit card in good standing for the past 3 years. He has 36 good marks on his credit report.

Person #2 has 3 credit cards in good standing for the past 3 years. He has 108 good marks on his credit report.

Which person would you rather lend money to?

Can you see the logic in my thinking? Am I assuming something I shouldn't?

I am a lot like you. I am 52 years old but haven't used any credit to speak of for a long time. I paid cash or debit card all the time. I first tried to sign up for MyFICO back in March of 2012 but they couldn't generate a score! I didn't have enough history for them to work with. I opened my first credit card in April. I opened my second credit card in June and shortly thereafter FICO was able to generate a score of 653 for me. I opened 2 more credit cards in August. As of September 29th my EQ score is 692.

From June to September (3 months) my scores have gone up 39 points. The only reason they stalled for a bit I think has to do with me opening those 2 cards in August but I expect them to continue to rise now as the cards age.

Believe me, I'm trying to help you. I am personally doing what I am suggesting you do. I have been on these boards non-stop for the past six months reading and learning how to make my scores the best they can be and try to help others do the same when I can.

I am not just throwing out advice willy nilly. I really think you would see great improvement to your scores if you had 2 more cards.

[fico64]

Dear jamie123,

Copy and paste from my earlier comment in this thread:  My comment:

"Re: Fico Score did not improve after 7 month credit card activity

Options

08-30-2012 10:13 PM

Thank you so much for all your comments. I stopped using my cc after they increased the rate from 5.5% to 15.9%. Was paying everything with a debit card. 7 months ago, decided to use the cc and pay fast to avoid interest charged and only to show activity at suggestion of this forum. I have no need for a second card, would not use it. I'm 66 and retired, don't need to buy a lot of stuff as before at a younger age.

Still want to report the error, I have had 7 months of activity on my cc and for this new Fico cr to say " I have no recent activity on my credit card" is wrong! I want that corrected. I paid for the report and it s not accurate. How do I get it corrected please?

Thank you."

When we bought our present home 3 years ago, took out a mortgage, credit score dropped. Just recently, we recouped the score we had prior to taking out the mortgage to purchase our home.

If you read the future scoring scenarios provided by My Fico within the credit report, if one takes out a new credit card, one enitaly receives a reduction in their score. I have no need for a second credit card, I'm only using my card now to show activity. We continue to pay for everything with cash or debit card. If I wanted a new car, I could pay for it in cash, no need to finance. We are fortunate in that way.  I just want the best possible score prior to purchasing our final retirement home. As you rightfully pointed out in your illustration, the best scores receive the lowest interest rate. That could save us thousands over time. 

What you have done worked well for you. I just can't jusify taking out a second credit card at high interest rates when we don't  need our existing card. Yes, I know, I can pay the balance before the interest attaches, that is what I have been doing for the lasts 8 months to show activity.

[fico64]

Thank you so much for all your comments. I stopped using my cc after they increased the rate from 5.5% to 15.9%. Was paying everything with a debit card. 7 months ago, decided to use the cc and pay fast to avoid interest charged and only to show activity at suggestion of this forum. I have no need for a second card, would not use it. I'm 66 and retired, don't need to buy a lot of stuff as before at a younger age.

Still want to report the error, I have had 7 months of activity on my cc and for this new Fico cr to say " I have no recent activity on my credit card" is wrong! I want that corrected. I paid for the report and it s not accurate. How do I get it corrected please?

Thank you."

When we bought our present home 3 years ago, took out a mortgage, credit score dropped. Just recently, we recouped the score we had prior to taking out the mortgage to purchase our home.

If you read the future scoring scenarios provided by My Fico within the credit report, if one takes out a new credit card, one enitaly receives a reduction in their score. I have no need for a second credit card, I'm only using my card now to show activity. We continue to pay for everything with cash or debit card. If I wanted a new car, I could pay for it in cash, no need to finance. We are fortunate in that way.  I just want the best possible score prior to purchasing our final retirement home. As you rightfully pointed out in your illustration, the best scores receive the lowest interest rate. That could save us thousands over time. 

What you have done worked well for you. I just can't jusify taking out a second credit card at high interest rates when we don't  need our existing card. Yes, I know, I can pay the balance before the interest attaches, that is what I have been doing for the lasts 8 months to show activity.

[jamie123]

I really don't know what else to say. I totally understand where you are coming from and have lived my life as you do. I've had to change the way I spend my money to get my scores higher though. Paying cash or with a debit card means nothing to FICO. Having money in the bank means nothing to FICO. Paying cash for a car means nothing to FICO. I've been there and done that with low scores to show for it.

You want your scores to go higher by doing what you think is right. What FICO thinks is right is something else.

All I can say is FICO loves people with credit cards.

Good luck to you!

[fico64]

Dear jamie123,

You made your strongest point and I agree. Still trying to figure out Fico scoring.

If anyone can explain to me and the reason for my posting today:

Botom line, 35 days ago, my report said that my credit history was great, today it was downgraded to very good. Today my report lists my 20 years, 5 months credit history as a negative, 35 days ago, my report  listed this credit history as a positive. (Please see prior posts on page 4)

The Moderator explained it.

How is this possible?

[vanillabean]

I know accounts in dispute don't count in utilization, but was surprised that a simple comment could leave it in limbo for so long. But good it got resolved.

As far as the short credit history is concerned, I suspect it may be caused by a card reporting a positive balance when it hasn't for a while or never.

[fico64]

Dear my-own-FIFO,

The one credit card I use has been kept with a balance of zero for the past 21/2 years. Once the comment was removed, I now received a positive for credit card utilization. With the comment there, they did not give me credit for usage.

Then strangely, for the first time, they downgrade and remove my credit history from great to very good and move from the positive column and place it in the negative column. 25 years, 5 months. Does this make since to you? All within the span of 35 days.  No accounts dropped off either. Everything is exactly the same in the two credit reports except now the comment is removed and 35 days expired. ???