I am totally lost

[Anonymous]

So I have 23,000 in credit lines. Currently only 4,400 in balances across them. Just recently paid off huge chunk of about 9k

Scores are 630-650 across the board. All bureaus have updated and I got notifications for all balances going down (all 3 CRA's by this point have recognized them, took a few days), yet it still says that my UTI is 63%, what it was before I paid off 8,900 in balances recently? But scores went up as the 2 cards I paid off reported. The UTI sgoukld be around 20%, and that is what it shows on the basic credit karma page. It is also still showing my revolving debt at the old number before I paid off a bunch of stuff.

On myfico........

Fico 8 from experian - recently went from 589 to 631 on the chart. (due to balances decreasing). Still showing 63% UTI

TU - Went from 599 to 627 recently. Still showing 63% UTI

Equifax - 613 to 650 recently. Still showing 63% UTI

I recently tried to get a few increases. Flat denial 10 day letters despite massive spending and paying off balances recently.

I go look at the "other scores  (for Equifax) and see that I am sitting at 580 for bankcard 8. 613 for bankcard 4.High 590's for the 9's scores.

My question is are the scores on the front page reflecting the balance decreases, but these "other" scores aren't?? 

When these companies pull what are they seeing? Obviously one of the lower scores in the high 500's still I am guessing? 

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you have probably purchased the myFICO Ultimate product as a credit monitoring service -- but that you also have some other tools, like Credit Karma.  Is that right?

My guess is that you are looking at your myFICO report, and wondering why certain changes (like percent utilization, etc.) aren't being updated.  That's because the product you purchased (the "Utlimate") only updates that report once every 90 days.  But it sends smaller "alerts" (in certain situations, not all) that tell you when a balance has changed (for example) and when it alerts you of this fact it gives you a new FICO 8 Classic score.

I do not myself use any myFICO products, but I belive that's how they work.  Happy to be corrected if anyone knows better.

With Credit Karma you get a full brand new report as often as every seven days (depending on how often you look).   And therefore Karma will show the percent utilization (etc.) faster than myFICO does.  Karma is a wonderful tool.  The only caveats are these:

*  Ignore their scores (if you are actually wanting FICO scores)

*  Ignore what Karma's front end interface says about age of oldest account and average age of accounts.  (It calculates these incorrectly)

*  If Karma ever says your utilization is 0%, check again to see if you have one card reporting a small balance.  If you do, then FICO will consider that 1%.

I hope you will continue to pay down your CC debt until it is compleley paid off.  Then you can continue to use 1-2 cards and pay them in full each time.  Much better for your pocketbook and your score.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It sounds like you have probably purchased the myFICO Ultimate product as a credit monitoring service -- but that you also have some other tools, like Credit Karma.  Is that right?

My guess is that you are looking at your myFICO report, and wondering why certain changes (like percent utilization, etc.) aren't being updated.  That's because the product you purchased (the "Utlimate") only updates that report once every 90 days.  But it sends smaller "alerts" (in certain situations, not all) that tell you when a balance has changed (for example) and when it alerts you of this fact it gives you a new FICO 8 Classic score.

I do not myself use any myFICO products, but I belive that's how they work.  Happy to be corrected if anyone knows better.

With Credit Karma you get a full brand new report as often as every seven days (depending on how often you look).   And therefore Karma will show the percent utilization (etc.) faster than myFICO does.  Karma is a wonderful tool.  The only caveats are these:

*  Ignore their scores (if you are actually wanting FICO scores)

*  Ignore what Karma's front end interface says about age of oldest account and average age of accounts.  (It calculates these incorrectly)

*  If Karma ever says your utilization is 0%, check again to see if you have one card reporting a small balance.  If you do, then FICO will consider that 1%.

I hope you will continue to pay down your CC debt until it is compleley paid off.  Then you can continue to use 1-2 cards and pay them in full each time.  Much better for your pocketbook and your score.

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Yes I have the myfico monitoring. At $30 a month. And yes the credit karma updates once a week. (but my last update was 7/20, and my TU has updated since then and score has changed.

So what I am tryig to figure out is what score are the banks seeing when they pull? My TU just finally updated with another balance drop and now I am at 650 EQ, 648 TU, 631 EX. My "Fico Bankcard 8" score is STILL 587?? 

I'm not going to waste my time trying to get any new cards or increases if they are looking at the 587 obv. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So what I am tryig to figure out is what score are the banks seeing when they pull?

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By "the banks" I am assuming you mean any prospective lender or CC issuer to whom you might apply for a loan or a card.  The answer is that it could be dozens of different scores.

First off it could be a score drawn from any of three bureaus: EQ, TU, or EX. 

Second the FICO model could belong to any of four families: FICO 9, FICO 8, FICO 04, FICO 98.

Finally, each family model contains at least three flavors: Classic, Bankcard Ennhanced, Auto Enhanced.

3 x 4 x 3 = 36 different possible scores.  And that's considering only FICO.  There are proprietary systems of scoring (owned by the creditor itself) and Vantage Score and also FICO NextGen.

[Anonymous]

PS.  You also write:

"My "Fico Bankcard 8" score is STILL 587?? "

Remember what I said earlier.  The myFICO Ultimate product you purchased only updates every 90 days.  The only exception is your FICO 8 Classic score, which updates more often if certain kinds of alertable events happens.  Most scores will never update, except at that 90 mark when you get a new 3b report, e.g:

Bankcard Enhanced scores

Auto Enhanced scores

"Mortgage" scores

FICO 9 scores

FICO 04 scores

FICO 98 scores

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

PS.  You also write:

"My "Fico Bankcard 8" score is STILL 587?? "

Remember what I said earlier.  The myFICO Ultimate product you purchased only updates every 90 days.  The only exception is your FICO 8 Classic score, which updates more often if certain kinds of alertable events happens.  Most scores will never update, except at that 90 mark when you get a new 3b report, e.g:

Bankcard Enhanced scores

Auto Enhanced scores

"Mortgage" scores

FICO 9 scores

FICO 04 scores

FICO 98 scores

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OK so that isn't changing on the product I have for 90 days. But is it changing when the banks (yes referring to credit cards) pull my info?(if that is the scoring model they are using) I really don't care what it "says" to me on the screen, I am worried about if it is updating in almost real time to the perspective lenders like my general scores are. I would imagine if those scores are updating usually within 24 hours, the other models are too, but I just can't "see" it like I can the scores?

[Anonymous]

Yes, any potential lender that pulls your report will see the updated report, information and thus the updated scores even though what you're seeing on myFICO is still old data.  You definitely don't have to worry about that.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

PS.  You also write:

"My "Fico Bankcard 8" score is STILL 587?? "

Remember what I said earlier.  The myFICO Ultimate product you purchased only updates every 90 days.  The only exception is your FICO 8 Classic score, which updates more often if certain kinds of alertable events happens.  Most scores will never update, except at that 90 mark when you get a new 3b report, e.g:

Bankcard Enhanced scores

Auto Enhanced scores

"Mortgage" scores

FICO 9 scores

FICO 04 scores

FICO 98 scores

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OK so that isn't changing on the product I have for 90 days. But is it changing when the banks (yes referring to credit cards) pull my info?(if that is the scoring model they are using) I really don't care what it "says" to me on the screen, I am worried about if it is updating in almost real time to the perspective lenders like my general scores are. I would imagine if those scores are updating usually within 24 hours, the other models are too, but I just can't "see" it like I can the scores?

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Yup, that's it exactly.  Your scores are changing all the time and the prospective CC issuer will see the latest one.  The only score you have close to an accurate idea of what its current value is would be the FICO 8 Classic.  Even still your FICO 8 Classic score could change for all kinds of reasons and the Ultimate product mihgt not tell you about it.  That's because you only get a new FICO 8 Classic score when an "Alertable" event happens.  Many changes to your report or score are not alertable.

Some people find that because off all this, the Ultimate product is not (in their opinion) worth the $30 per month.  So they just switch to free or very low cost tools to monitor their scores and reports.  Other folks love the Ultimate package, which is great too.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

With Credit Karma you get a full brand new report as often as every seven days (depending on how often you look).   And therefore Karma will show the percent utilization (etc.) faster than myFICO does.  Karma is a wonderful tool.  The only caveats are these:

*  Ignore their scores (if you are actually wanting FICO scores)

*  Ignore what Karma's front end interface says about age of oldest account and average age of accounts.  (It calculates these incorrectly)

*  If Karma ever says your utilization is 0%, check again to see if you have one card reporting a small balance.  If you do, then FICO will consider that 1%.

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Good points above from CGID regarding what not to look at with respect to CK.  One more thing I'll add to his list is "payment history."  CK will show you your payment history expressed as a percentage [of on time payments relative to your total number of payments] but it only looks at the last 1-2 years.  FICO scoring models will look at the last 7 years.  So, if you have a bunch of late payments that are say 3-4 years old (but clean from that point to current) that are seriously holding back your FICO scores, CK may show your payment history as "100%" giving you the impression that your scores aren't being hurt by that category at all.

[Anonymous]

Wow, BBS, I had no clue that Karma did that.  One more reson not to pay any attention to its front end interface except for CC utilization.  And of course the reports themselves are fine.