Lower Util Score Drop

[SouthJamaica]

MyFICO alerts don't provide reasons for a score change. There are certain events which trigger MyFICO alerts. If there happens to be any difference between your present score at that particular bureau and the previous score reported to you from that bureau, the score change is tacked on to the alert. There is not necessarily any connection at all between the score change and the alert substance.

MyFICO explains this as follows:


Why did my score go up when I got an alert for something negative (or why did my score go down when I got an alert for something positive)?

The short answer: Your FICO® Score may change because of other events not monitored by an alert.

Whenever we send you a credit alert, we also send an updated FICO Score. To ensure you get the most current score, we calculate it based on your entire credit report at that point in time—not just the new information on the alert. This means your new score may reflect other changes that are outside of the things we watch for (see everything we monitor).

Sometimes you may see your score increase when you think it should’ve decreased, and vice-versa, but you’ll always have your most up-to-date and accurate score.
https://support.myfico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038084633

[OscarsMom]

@Tiersha I posted elsewhere in the thread, but I've had something similar happening to me. Also with EQ. 

It does look like they changed my credit history from 30+ years to 17 years when I took out a loan from a CU. I don't know why they made the change, as the date I opened a JCP CC in 1991 is still on the report. I guess I'll try to dispute that. But it's such a small percentage of my score, and my history length still showing as "excellent," so I doubt that's what's messing up my score. 

[Tiersha]

Inherently I would agree with this but nothing on my report has changed except lower uti.  I pulled my reports from annual credit and it matches here.  The first time this hapened to me many months ago, I think last yr.  I went azeo and everyone said it wasn't that, well I go to azeo this time and bam the exact same thing.  I will not utilize azeo moving forward but will keep a small bamace on two cards and see what it does.

[OscarsMom]

@SouthJamaica Is that really an explanation, though? It's really just a statement saying they can do what they want with your credit score with no transparency. 

[Tiersha]

The only three times I have ever suffered a drop like this is when I paid off all cards to zeo, that wacked stuff out lol and the other two times is went I went Azeo.  I will now move forward with two cards with a small balance.  I know people here swear by azeo but ea time I go there I get penalized and that's crap.  I know my credit report and I know the changes so I have nothing left except the one thing I did to change things.

[OscarsMom]

@Tiersha There's often no rhyme or reason to it as far as I can tell. It's ridiculous. While I get that the bureaus don't like seeing your cards paid off completely (which is nonsense), it's really infuriating that paying off loans (about which you have no choice) also drops your score. Then we get the reassuring message of "Don't worry, it will go back up...eventually." And what if you are looking for a mortgage or something else in the meantime? You're screwed. 

[Tiersha]

Yep.  I made sure to get all of my loan approvals etc before my house got paid off today.  by time it come for them to rerun credit it will go back up or they can manually overwrite as they will see its nothing more than the house loan being paid off.

[OscarsMom]

@Tiersha That was smart. But people shouldn't have to play these kinds of games. Your creditworthiness (the reason people give for defending the current system) certainly isn't less because you've responsibly paid off a loan. 

[Tiersha]

You are absolutely right.  Also the fact that we don't know what are mortgage scores are until after we apply is a huge lack of transparency which deprives us of an informed choice and fores a hard pull on our credit and for some this is problematic,  We should be allowed to view our mtg scores just as we do our cc, loans and auto scores.

I've frequently wondered lately about starting one of those stupid online petitions to move the mtg scores into a more transparent place for consumers.  To me it is an unfair practice.

So When I get bored, contact Hoouse Comittee on Financial services -got it lol

[SouthJamaica]

---

@OscarsMom wrote:

@SouthJamaica Is that really an explanation, though? It's really just a statement saying they can do what they want with your credit score with no transparency. 

---

1. Yes it's an explanation. There is no cause and effect relationship between the substance of the alert and the score change that has been tacked on to it.

2. Lowering one's utilization does not cause one's score to be lower.

3. "Transparency" is not a hallmark of the FICO system. FICO is based on proprietary algorithms, the components of which are trade secrets.  There is zero transparency.  That's why we're here trying to pick up bits and pieces of scraps and clues that might help guide us. Taking the MyFICO alerts, and treating unrelated changes in them as being related, serves to confuse, not clarify.