Interesting Score Change

[Anonymous]

Hey All,

I woke up this morning and checked my Experian and noticed a 14 point drop in my EX8 score 739 - 725.  The only change is a zero balance reporting on the card on which I am an AU.  My Amex charge is showing a balance, and my Synch credit card is showing a balance (6% utilization).  I do not think it is the zero balance on the AU card that caused the drop because I took a score hit for lack of credit use when my Synch card had a zero balance, but the other two had a balance. 

Additionally, the "What's hurting your score?" has a new item today that was not there yesterday - short account history.  It indicates that my oldest account is NOT the AU account (which was my oldest) but instead a different account with is not an AU. 

What do you all think?  Is this an indication that FICO is removing all scoring impact/Age of Accounts info from the scoring?  This has been a wild couple of months for my Experian FICO.

[Anonymous]

Something most likely reaged and put you into a different bucket. Think old closed accounts.

The whole Charge card rerpoting doesn't impact scoring unless you miss a payment.  Sync can be debatable depending on what type of card it is but, generally you'll see more of an impact when all of your BANK V/MC report 0.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I woke up this morning and checked my Experian and noticed a 14 point drop in my EX8 score 739 - 725.  The only change is a zero balance reporting on the card on which I am an AU.  My Amex charge is showing a balance, and my Synch credit card is showing a balance (6% utilization).  I do not think it is the zero balance on the AU card that caused the drop because I took a score hit for lack of credit use when my Synch card had a zero balance, but the other two had a balance. 

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The Amex charge card can be removed from the equation as it doesn't count toward utilization, so really we're just talking your AU card verses your [non-AU] Synchrony card.  It sounds like you've seen an inconsistency with "no revolving credit use" with both your AU card and your Synchrony cards for whatever reason.  When this topic comes up, big advice is always given to avoid AU accounts, store cards, charge cards, etc. when you want a balance to report and be "counted" by the FICO algorithm.  I can't explain why it may have counted once and not again for your two different accounts in question, but using a major bank card going forward would definitely allow you to avoid the penalty.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys.  I find it curious that there was a penalty when the AU card had a balance and the Synch was negative  (understandable), but now is the opposite, and there is still a drop.  Additionally, I have never had a negative comment of short history before today, where as when the Synch was negative, "no credit activity" was listed as hurting.

There are no changes to my closed accounts at all, double checked.

While most of you are probably not following my posts, the Synch was removed from my account for about a week due to a fraudulent charge (the large drop in the score), so this is probably the system resetting.   I find this stuff very interesting!

[Aspireto850]

@NBK246,

About a week ago someone posted that there were changes to AU and they would no longer factor in scoring or really help. I couldn’t find the post to link it here but I think that was the gist of it. Could be why your score lower.