@scwhite wrote:I am sorry if my post are not clear enough. I have no reson to intentionally mislead on this board about my report as I am here seeing if any of you have any insight that might help me and I do appreciate the help, I really do, but not if it upsets you or my post just don't give you enough to go on. I do understand if you don't have any suggestions that might help me figure this out. I understand basic credit reporting but I am not familiar with FICO 2/FICO 8 differences and my little research so far hasn't helped but I will keep surfing and reading any articles I can find.
The 70 point difference is between the Experian FICO 8 and Experian FICO 2. I only have the Advantage scores from the other 2 and those are 825/823 and I assume are probably more alligned with the FICO 8.
The Experian FICO 8 score is 841 and the Experian FICO 2 score is 771. I do have a perfect credit history dating back to the 80s so the issue is in the mix of accounts. I have 2 active VISA credit cards and an Americian Express card that I have had for probably 20 years, one VISA I use for a small business but it is a personal card. Sometimes the balance is as high as few thousand for a couple of months if I am breaking a business purchase into a couple of payments but it is normally well under a thousand. The 2nd VISA credit card has a few hundred tops whenever it is reported and I just use lightly when cash won't work. The bulk of my monthly expenses (about $3k) I charge on my Americian Express and pay in full each month. My credit usage is never more than 6-7% and almost always less than 3%.
The reason I think student loan is the hit is becuase there is nothing else other than the Americian Express. I do know that Americian Express is not counted against credit usuage if paid in full each month for FICO 8\Advantage but I don't know if FICO 2 uses it. With that added my usage most months pop up to maybe 10% and 15% every so often when I am buying something and paying over a couple of payments.
It seems to be either the Americian express card I pay in full each month or the student loan. I would clear the two credit cards each month but I did that for a while and my FICO 8 score dropped 20 points. I started leaving a small balance on each and the score went back up as my research said it would.
This is the first time I have seen the FICO 2 and was just very surprised that it was so much lower so I came on this board to see if you guys had some advice. At 771 it seems to be about 10 points over what I need to get best mortgage terms so I might have to just live with it. If I could zoom in on exactly what is causing such a drop I could consider changing that. I could clear the student loan I guess and see if that causes a pop and if not change how I pay my monthly bills to see it Americian Express is the issue. I would rather not change either right now so trying to see if I can figure our exactly what it is.
I appreciate any help you might provide!
There's the answer @scwhite
EX FICO 2 does count personal Amex charge cards in utilization. It uses your previous "high balance" as the limit.
Bottom line, if I were you, I would leave zero balances on the American Express card and one of the two credit cards, with the other credit card reporting a small balance.
@scwhite wrote:ya know I missed what you meant on the AX HB. You are right that card is probably 2-4k every single month so I guess the way they are doing it that would often show high percent usage. Sounds like if I just stop putting a few of the higher dollar expences on it then the usage will drop to a low % and the FICO 2 might then pop. Thanks!
Let the charge card and one of the credit cards report a zero balance, while the other credit card reports a small balance. That way all 3 of your mortgage scores will be greatly improved.