How Do New Accounts Affect FICO Scores?

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

I need some help understanding the reasons why my FICO score is going up and down. 

I added a new secured credit card in my name. My FICO score from the 3 different bureaus was affected in different ways because of the new account. TU and EX gave me a 22+ and 29+, while EQ gave me a -4. Furthermore, EQ gave me +29 for a balance decrease on a separate CC but none of the other 3Bs gave me anything for this same balance decrease. **bleep** is going on?

There are definitely some major discrepencies going on here, and I've called MyFico to try and get to the bottom of this. But all they say is to contact the 3Bs, which is an absolute nightmare. As an aside, and perhaps in another discussion I might start, does anyone have any good tips for getting in touch with the 3Bs?

 Any help is greatly appreciated, 

[Anonymous]

That is typical behavior for Equifax. I see the same thing with mine. Why? Who knows.

[gdale6]

You would first want to have hard copies in front of you prior to calling the CRAs to get things straightened out.  http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/CRA-Phone-amp-Fax-Numbers/m-p/407647

Welcome to My Fico

[Anonymous]

GD, thanks for the welcome, and thanks for your reply, I've been looking for a list of numbers like that for months! I think one of the things that makes this whole process of improving and maintaining FICO scores seem so daunting is not just the mysticism behind the scoring process, but the outright elusiveness of the 3B's! They make themselves so difficult to get a hold of, they're entirely out of touch with modern technology, and I don't believe it's right that organizations that behave this way should be in charge of consumers' most important financial information. Alright, off the soap box for now...

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "hard copies"? Do you mean to say I should have hard copies of my credit reports from each bureau so that I could ask them what the different changes in my reports are doing to my scores? Any additional info would be greatly appreciated, and thanks again for your time!

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

GD, thanks for the welcome, and thanks for your reply, I've been looking for a list of numbers like that for months! I think one of the things that makes this whole process of improving and maintaining FICO scores seem so daunting is not just the mysticism behind the scoring process, but the outright elusiveness of the 3B's! They make themselves so difficult to get a hold of, they're entirely out of touch with modern technology, and I don't believe it's right that organizations that behave this way should be in charge of consumers' most important financial information. Alright, off the soap box for now...

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "hard copies"? Do you mean to say I should have hard copies of my credit reports from each bureau so that I could ask them what the different changes in my reports are doing to my scores? Any additional info would be greatly appreciated, and thanks again for your time!

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hard copies are copies that come directly from the CRA to you via US Mail, they have more info on them than what is typically shown to you online. You can request you free annual copies from them to be  delivered by US Mail or if you dont have the free ones coming you can send them a letter along with their current fee for a report asking they be delivered to you thru the mail.  The CRA is not going to tell you anything about your scores they dont calculate nor supply them thats what Fico does based on the info in your report. With EX you have to have a report number to even talk to them by phone. You want to look at each report and mark the ones that have errors so you can properly request an investigation of a problem in reporting.

Fico scores are always moving they are a fluid number based on whats in your CRs at the time a creditor requests one, in other words they are a snapshot in time of the info in your CRs. CRs are constantly being updated with info from ones creditors so no score is truly static.