Really??

[Anonymous]

My score dropped 7 points from 834 to 827 because of increases in 4 accounts in the TOTAL amount of $1,852.  None of the accounts are late or have EVER been reported late. All accounts are current and up to date. An increase in 4 accounts (in an amount of less than $2K) should not cause a 7 point drop in my credit score.  This scoring system seems arbitrary and lacks common sense. 

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure that if I had nearly perfect scores I really wouldn't care about an 8/10 of one percent fluctuation.

[Anonymous]

It matters to me in principle. A consumer has the reasonable expectation of reliability and a scoring system that is not consistent is a sham.

[Anonymous]

Utilization is 30% of the score. When utilization goes up, the score can go down. There's nothing inconsistent about that. Additional information:

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/WhatsInYourScore.aspx

[Anonymous]

My utilization has not changed. I have been using the same accounts during the last 4 quarters. The outstanding balances have stayed below $2K. Until now my scores have consistently gone up never down for the past 2 years because my spending pattern has remained constant.

[Revelate]

To add, the algorithm is consistent; however, not every change which strikes us as trivial to us is borne out in FICO's data.

To give an example someone with a near 800 score last year went and let $1 report on all of her cards... $8 total revolving balances and absolutely got hammered for it.  While that was an extreme example I have to laugh at it, the algorithm is consistent, it's just not always "accurate" from our consumer view point, or even underwriter's viewpoints either, there's more which goes into an approval decision than FICO score.

It's not just an aggregate utilization calculation, there's also a number of revolving tradelines with balances calculation (which is known to exist but not sure where all the breakpoints are but 1 revolving trade reporting a balance appears to be optimized for everyone), and also an individual tradeline utilization calculation, and that's just what we're aware of after lots of anecdotal testing.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it much, anything north of 760 is gold plated territory and small variations in score shouldn't concern anyone let alone someone in the lofty strata north of 800 where the changes are indeed trivial from a lender perspective.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My utilization has not changed. I have been using the same accounts during the last 4 quarters. The outstanding balances have stayed below $2K. Until now my scores have consistently gone up never down for the past 2 years because my spending pattern has remained constant.

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If your utilization hasn't changed, what did you mean when you stated this:

My score dropped 7 points from 834 to 827 because of increases in 4 accounts in the TOTAL amount of $1,852. 

[Anonymous]

If the algo was consistent then my score should have gone up as in previous quarters - all things being the same (ie, my spending pattern and card utilization).

[Anonymous]

I have had increases in each of the 4 accounts over the past 4 quarters. These increases (of less than 2K on average) have never caused my score to go down until now.

[Anonymous]

...I honestly wouldn't worry about it much, anything north of 760 is gold plated territory and small variations in score shouldn't concern anyone let alone someone in the lofty strata north of 800 where the changes are indeed trivial from a lender perspective.

My GF tells me to relax too but it's the principle - and my OCD for consistency. 

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