How bad are consumer finance accounts really?
So just when I thought that I could at least live with all the explanations on CFAs, Experian threw me a curveball this weekend.
My new Experian score jumped 23 points to 780. the CFA negative reason report is no longer on there. With the exception of three accounts aging by one month, I can't find an explanation.
I'm not complaining at all, but I really thought the negative reason report would hang around for another 6 years or so. Does it seem as if the three CFAs have dropped off after 4years?
@REDBOYYY56 wrote:So just when I thought that I could at least live with all the explanations on CFAs, Experian threw me a curveball this weekend.
My new Experian score jumped 23 points to 780. the CFA negative reason report is no longer on there. With the exception of three accounts aging by one month, I can't find an explanation.
I'm not complaining at all, but I really thought the negative reason report would hang around for another 6 years or so. Does it seem as if the three CFAs have dropped off after 4years?
Congrats is this on your Fico 8? I have a mention of CFA on 2 of my Fico 8s but my scores are all above 815 for all 3, where I see the issue where my scores are being dragged down is EX FICO 5 where my score is 777 and has the CFA remark
CFA's stay there full monty unfortunately (10 years after close as someone already mentioned).
Any time you change buckets the reason codes get jumbled around among other reasons for a CFA reason code disappearing. It is not a major ding so it will often sit in the 4th or worse position (5/6/7) depending on scorecard, and with reason code cutoffs it's hard to see.
That reminds me, I actually have an somewhat interesting credit event this year... yay! God I feel old got that before I even found this forum, but that will get me off my ass to try to get credit prettier before that event.
| Cashcall loan | 12/1/11 | 122 | Closed 7/12, Not on TU | 7/1/22 |
@FinStar wrote:
@sarge12 wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:Nobody knows. Sometimes it's really difficult to pin down what account is a CFA. Then you have lenders like Honda and Toyota whose financing shows up as a CFA. From what I've seen, it doesn't appear to drag down your score much. Issue is more with lenders on a manual review who see them. Even then, it seems to be a non-issue for most.
From personal experience, it affects mortgage scores mainly. American Honda Finance showed as a negative on my mortgage scores for 10 years, in spite of the fact I only actually had the loan for 1 day. I re-financed the day after buying my Goldwing to get a better rate from my credit union. I can't attribute all the lower scores to that alone, but my fico scores used in mortgages were about 50 points lower than fico 08 scores. They are still lower, even after falling off the report, but are closer now than they were then FWIW.
My outcome was definitely different than yours regarding AHF. Many, many moons ago, I had leases and loans with AHF and I never saw any [CFA] negative reason codes display on any of the scoring versions 🤷♂️
I'd ask how many moons ago that was bud.
AFAIK CFAs are just a list of lender names that if the lender shows up it gets the CFA tag and if it doesn't no problem. This gets updated regularly. Not a fan, but I want to say around 2014/2015 people started seeiing the negative reason code with the Honda Financing tradeline name. Worse the tradeline name sometimes changes too, CFAs are just a mess full stop and I wish they were just done away with.
@REDBOYYY56 It looks like this issue went away for you? That's great! Thanks a lot for the info.
When you had the issue, did you have items in your list of accounts on Experian that were described as CFAs? Or did they show up as "installment loans" or something else? Also just so I understand, you were checking this on the Experian website?
@REDBOYYY56 wrote:This is one topic that no one has a definite answer for. With all things being equal, my Experian fico 8 score has been my lowest score at 756. There are currently 3 CFA showing paid that go back since 2018. Since I'm not looking for a mortgage anytime soon I've never really dug into it.
Currently, it's listed as the second negative item on my Experian, so it has some impact but it's hard to quantify how much!
The fact that it's my lowest score across the board tells me that it has some impact.
I wished I was warned of those CFA, but that's another story for another day!!
@FireMedic1 wrote:@TyrannicalDunceryClick on a posters name with old threads. @REDBOYYY56 hasnt been here since 08/22
Maybe a little traffic here will round up some peeps 
@FireMedic1 we need a sticky on CFA's. Or am I missing it somewhere around here?