Increase to FICO different after CC paydown. Anyone know what gives? Especially with EX?

[Anonymous]

Hello there,

I paid down $11k in one month to one card which brought me below 35% CU on that card.  All other cards are at under 35% cu.  Sure enough, next day FICO's went up:

TU 754 EX 715; 14 point increase on TU, 15 point increase on EX.

Now it gets weird.  EQ did not update till the next day.  Only went up 5 when it did update from 725 to 730.  Then my EX score actually went down from the previous day by 8 points!!!!  So I got 15 up originally then gave back 8.  Anyone else seen this?  Why is the Experian score so much different than TU and EX?  There are no huge differences in the reports.  Thanks for any help.  Realize I need to get my CU even lower to get to 800 but working on it.

[RobertEG]

If your EX CR was the same on day one and day two, and the EX scoring algorithm from FairIsaac was the same, then the score could not have changed.   There was most probably some change in your EX CR that caused this.  Did you make a new inq that reported on EX?  Did a closed account drop from the report?  Do you have any issues in dispute? Any new accounts reporting?  It is in there somewhere.

And remember that you are not always evaluated on a single FICO algorithm.  If your increased score due to reduced %util in the EX model put you into a new "bucket" of their models, you will then be sored with an entirely different algorithm.  The mid-700s,, from anecdotal posts of others, seems to be a point where this usually happens. 

And there is one other, more remote possible explanation.  FairIsaac has stated in its webinars that the algorithms supplied to the CRAs are not perpetually frozen in time.  They make adjustments, both due their ongoing risk analysis, and upon requests from their customer CRAs.  So ther is never a guarantee that the same algorithm will always be used in any CRA scoring, even with no "bucket" change resulting in a new algorithm.

Scour your CR first. 

Message Edited by RobertEG on 05-23-2008 09:25 PM

Message Edited by RobertEG on 05-23-2008 09:26 PM

[Anonymous]

It is true he could be in a different bucket or it could be true that the EX formula is entirely different. It might grade different on that part of the curve than other bureau formulas.