Sounds like you have a good idea about the difference in your scores.
EX has always lagged between the three on mie, but I just don't care anymore. lol
@SlimShady66 wrote:Sounds like you have a good idea about the difference in your scores.
EX has always lagged between the three on mie, but I just don't care anymore. lol
That's the spirit! I don't stress over scores and enjoy watching them move around now that I have no open loans. It allows me to observe cause/effect responses that were previously muted.
Btw - my TU Fico 8 reported at 844 as of a 12/17/23 update thru Discover 
. I guess the 837 plateau on TU was not a real ceiling - still had 2, possibly 3, cards reporting balances.
Now that I have access to EQ it will be mildly interesting to see how that score fluctuates.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:Btw - my TU Fico 8 reported at 844 as of a 12/17/23 update thru Discover
Just one datapoint, my peak FICO-8 scores came three months after my discharged Chapter 13 fell off my reports back in 2022:
- 850 - EQ
- 840 - EX
- 843 - TU
I can add very little with fluctuations.
Even when my only installment load was at 50% utilization, my Fico 8 scores are as follows
EX - 837 to 847 Normal range (Figure when small balances on two cards reports and no balance on any cards score is in lower range)
EQ - 850 (Never fluctuates that I have seen under normal circumstances)
TU - 850 (Never fluctuates that I have seen under normal circumstances)
Exceptions:
- There were instances where I took advantage of 11 months of zero interest on one of my cards anywhere between 25% to 40% utilization. I can validate this affected EX in the 814 range and then recover after 4 or 5 months which was generally the timeframe to pay the balance off.
- Additionally, there was a mortgage refinance back in Sep 2020 which dropped EX down to 807 initially and recovered to 838 in May 2021.
- There was a mistake on a mortgage transfer where EX did not report the new tradeline and the older mortgage tradeline closed for six months on. This initially dropped the score to 825 then down to 807-816 with over 20% utilization on one of my CC's.
Odd to see EQ and TU at 850 and EX at 816.
Regardless, EX has always been the lower which I assume has to do with either EX calculations or the credit report account details which are slightly different than TU and EQ. I have never seen it hit 850. The top end is 847 with one card reporting a $50 to$100 balance. Makes me feel my score automatically attenuated. Lol.
Anyway, it has been long enough for me to get a feel for cause and effect. But not reel super accurate data points.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:Well, now that I signed up for EQ, I get alerts. I got one that my balance decreased by $843 (card paid off) and Fico 8 score skyrocketed to 840 from 837, lol.
I let all cards report balances naturally. Guess I'll be seeing some fluctuations now as balances get reported and statement balances are then PIF. That's the punishment for no open loan 🤨
Having an open loan would not change the fluctuations up and down from revolving utilization changes.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:My monthly mortgage with lengthy payment history did stabalize my scores - I have the data. Even my EQ bankcard Fico 8 was more stable and that score had no buffer.
Actually, my monthly EX Fico 8 scores never fluctuated from 3/2015 to 11/2020 - always at 850. My monthly TU score dropped to 845 once and 848 a couple times. Otherwise it was at 850 as well. My 14 EQ Fico 8 scores from 3 B reports during the same time period were also 850.
During the above time period I had a card report 78% utilization with no change in any Fico 8 scores. There were multiple other times a card reported over 50% UT with no drop in score. Now that the mortgage has closed, instability due to revolving account activity - utilization changes moreso than accounts with balances - has increased. Elevated card utilizations used to be meh.
I don't know whether loans such as an SSL or other shorter duration installments such as an Auto loan help stability. My 15 year mortgage did.
My loan experience was only with SSL's and other shorter term loans, and they had no effect on the slight ups and downs from slight changes in utilization.
I had the same experience with the SSL as @Thomas_Thumb had with his mortgage. It bolstered my Fico8 and give it stability once you're past the "new tradeline" phase, which really isn't that long. This is with the tradleline UTI below 9%.
From my reading here years ago and my experience in doing it, Fico8 doesn't seem to distiguish from different installment loan types.
With that said, CC was almost always between 0% to 3% UTI, and I only have like five of them. So maybe there was no reason for my scores to fluctuate.
I have no data, just the rusty memory to go by here.
Digging through my NAS found compelling evidence from Experian FICO8 report from Nov and Dec 2015
SSL reported 100% UTI new tradeline on Nov 2015 $500 balance FICO8 score 787
SSL reported 9% UTI on Dec 2015 $45 balance FICO8 score 816
I had four new trade lines that year, and the SSL was brand new, and still bounced score 30 points.
So maybe theoretically, if you have no active installment and your score is, say FICO8 825 and we might consider the a new SSL tradline paid down to 9% worth 30 points. Theoretically, it would bump you to Fico8 850 and perhaps give additional hard buffer resistant to CC fluctuations UTI fuctuations.
Kind of a hard 850+, but you don't see the + in the score.
Just a theory.