If this is from MyFICO. Some things will cause a trigger in turn it will place a comment that doesnt always match or make sense when an alert hits. Usually the next alert will say what really happened. If not the monthly/quarterly update you can see it. 1 or 2 points can happen 10 times a day. Its always changing everyday. If it was 10-20 pts yes its a what the heck is going on thing. No reason to sweat 1 or 2 points.
@Anonymous wrote:I've had various Fico scoring apps. This is basically what I deal with from month to month.
1. Your score decreased by 2 points. Reason given: Your bank card accounts Credit Limit increased.
2. Your score decreased by 1 point. Reason given: The total balance on all of your bank cards has decreased by $373.
3. Your score decreased by 2 points. Reason: Nothing happened we just decided to decrease your score.
I'm beginning to think Fico scores are an outdated way to judge a persons potential to default on debt.
What's confusing you is your mistaken assumption that a "reason" was "given".
MyFICO alerts don't provide reasons for a score change. There are certain events which trigger MyFICO alerts. If there happens to be any difference between your present score at that particular bureau and the previous score reported to you from that bureau, the score change is tacked on to the alert. There is not necessarily any connection at all between the score change and the alert substance.
MyFICO explains this as follows:
Why did my score go up when I got an alert for something negative (or why did my score go down when I got an alert for something positive)?
The short answer: Your FICO® Score may change because of other events not monitored by an alert.
Whenever we send you a credit alert, we also send an updated FICO Score. To ensure you get the most current score, we calculate it based on your entire credit report at that point in time—not just the new information on the alert. This means your new score may reflect other changes that are outside of the things we watch for (see everything we monitor).
Sometimes you may see your score increase when you think it should’ve decreased, and vice-versa, but you’ll always have your most up-to-date and accurate score.
https://support.myfico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038084633
@Anonymous wrote:Understood but it is the Fico app itself that provides the reason. If they don't want to confuse consumers then they shouldn't put the reason in the very app they provide consumers. It should just say "Reason: We don't disclose!"
It doesn't give you the reason. It gives you 2 unrelated facts. A recent change. And your current score.
Yes I agree their updates are misleading and they should be more clear about it. Many of us have been beseeching them to be more clear, and that is the reason for the disclaimer they finally added, which is (a) hard to find, and (b) not clear enough.
@Anonymous wrote:
I'm beginning to think Fico scores are an outdated way to judge a persons potential to default on debt.
You are correct. A lower FICO score is a summarized way of signaling to banks that this person has a higher risk of default on credit that is advanced to the person. A higher FICO score reduces the risk of default.
Often times the higher FICO score is due to simply less actual borrowing by the individual, so there's less to default on. Lower scores can reflect various levels of missed payments, charged off accounts ( walked away from debts ) or bankruptcy. Those sorts of events raise the risk that a borrower will default again, since the borrower already showed those behaviors.
However the 1 and 2 point changes you are frustrated with aren't going to be significant enough for any bank to pay attention to.
What are your FICO 8 scores currently anyhow? That main starting point is what you should be concerned about, not the noise of the frequent small changes around that anchor, long term FICO score level.
