Overall vs. Indiv %Util

[Junejer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't think they look at $ amounts at all-

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I agree with Timothy. When I had only one CC reporting at 70% uti, my scores plummeted, when I got it to 5% uti the scores soared. Now that there are higher balances and higher over CLs, it hasn't seemed to matter from a scoring standpoint.

IOW 500/500 or 10000/10000 equally bad from a scoring standpoint. You'll get the message: "you seem to have made heavy use of available credit..."

[marty56]

It seems then that the issue of 50% of 500 vs 10k would have to be resolved by a manual review as part of a DTI analaysis by the lender which needs information (salary) not found in your CR,

[Anonymous]

I agree marty.

I think if you apply for instant credit they will go by the score and percentages. If you apply for a loan of any size the manual review is where the real emphasis will be.

[fused]

Never mind already!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Message Edited by fused on 05-31-2008 01:55 PM

[RobertEG]

I have never seen anything published by FairIsaac saying that balances themselves are directly factored into scoring, but it makes my wonder when I see a "SoreWatch" alert category which relates only to balance increases.  They obviously monitor it, but that does not answer the question as to its affect in the scoring algoritm.

Is the sole purpose of such an alert only for possible credit fraud monitoring?

Message Edited by RobertEG on 05-31-2008 05:40 PM

[fused]

I repeat:

This topic was beaten to death in the early myFICO days. From a FICO scoring stand point there is no difference. FICO will only factor util percentage and not the $$ amount. Lenders looking at your reports will have other opinions though.

[RobertEG]

I hear you, fused, but do you base this absolute statement upon any pronoucement from FairIsaac? Saying "I dont believe it" is not the same as saying it aint true.

FairIsaac has told us over and over again what DOES go into their scoring, and clearly  %util.  is major.  But nothing I have ever seen from FI states that balances have no scoring affect.

They clearly monitor account balances.

I would be ther first to acquiesce in the pronouncment that accont balances have no affect if it was received it from the mouth of the horse.

To date, I  have neve seen that, and thus I do not just  simply accept it based upon beliefs of fellow posters on the site.

Message Edited by RobertEG on 06-01-2008 01:24 AM

[Junejer]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I have never seen anything published by FairIsaac saying that balances themselves are directly factored into scoring, but it makes my wonder when I see a "SoreWatch" alert category which relates only to balance increases.  They obviously monitor it, but that does not answer the question as to its affect in the scoring algoritm.

Is the sole purpose of such an alert only for possible credit fraud monitoring?

Message Edited by RobertEG on 05-31-2008 05:40 PM

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Balance increases are for the purposes of monitoring uti %.

[fused]

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RobertEG wrote:

I hear you, fused, but do you base this absolute statement upon any pronoucement from FairIsaac? Saying "I dont believe it" is not the same as saying it aint true.

FairIsaac has told us over and over again what DOES go into their scoring, and clearly  %util.  is major.  But nothing I have ever seen from FI states that balances have no scoring affect.

They clearly monitor account balances.

I would be ther first to acquiesce in the pronouncment that accont balances have no affect if it was received it from the mouth of the horse.

To date, I  have neve seen that, and thus I do not just  simply accept it based upon beliefs of fellow posters on the site.

Message Edited by RobertEG on 06-01-2008 01:24 AM

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Think whatever you like

[Mythic850]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I have never seen anything published by FairIsaac saying that balances themselves are directly factored into scoring, but it makes my wonder when I see a "SoreWatch" alert category which relates only to balance increases. They obviously monitor it, but that does not answer the question as to its affect in the scoring algoritm.

Is the sole purpose of such an alert only for possible credit fraud monitoring?

Message Edited by RobertEG on 05-31-2008 05:40 PM

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1) As for balances being directly factored into scoring, I just got this listed among the factors hurting my TU score:

The balances on your non-mortgage credit accounts are too high.
Total amount you owe on all non-mortgage accounts: $28890
Most FICO High Achievers [?] carry a total balance of less than $1200 on non-mortgage accounts.

Your FICO score considers how much you owe on your credit accounts, such as revolving credit accounts [?] and non-mortgage installment loans [?]. Generally, the more you owe on these accounts, the greater risk you pose to lenders.

What to do about this: You should try to pay off your current debts and maintain low balances. However, consolidating or moving your debt from one account to another will usually not help your FICO score since the same total amount is owed.

This is different than the more typical (which I also have on the same report):

You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
Ratio of your revolving balances to your credit limits: 19%
For FICO High Achievers [?], this ratio is 7%, on average.


To me this seems like pretty good evidence that non-mortgage balance amounts do matter. For the record, $2,500 of the $28,890 is revolving CC debt ($2,400 has been paid--just waiting for it to be reported), the remainder is a single auto loan.

2) My whole take on SW is that it is designed only for credit fraud monitoring. I've written about this recently on another thread. So my thinking on why we get the balance increase alerts is to watch for fradulent spending. It doesn't have anything to do with FICO score monitoring. They just give us two controls on the alert so we can better target the triggers. Some people are probably more comfortable working with dollar amounts than with percentage increases.