Score dropped 28 points! (here's why...but why did this happen??)

[Anonymous]

Also....

"have you applied for credit? have you had any HPs in the intervening time? Any new accounts hit the CR?"

No to everything.

But we are getting ready to do some mortgage shopping so it's a bummer it went down this much.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like there’s a good possibility that you got rebucketed. The only significant change that I really see is you crossed one individual utilization threshold when you went from 80% to 55% and you crossed the 69.8% threshold. But there’s no way it’s worth that many points. Plus you changed points across every score. My money is on you are in a new scorecard. I’m sorry to hear that it happened in a bad time, but you can bring the mortgage score up with a couple changes.

First let me address one of the things that you said. You said you normally pay off everything but you leave some balances because you thought that was the way it should be done. Well if you want to squeeze every single point out of that mortgage score you need to have only one revolver report a balance, a small balance and that card should be a major bank card. Everything else should report zero. And your utilization percentages already look great to be honest. Just implement AZEO. And you would be surprised the points you may get. I would recommend being in AZEO for your next 3B and let’s see what your mortgage score is then. Also keep in mind they’re going to use your middle score so it’s not the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for this help, Birdman! 

Okay, so for a "major bank card", would it be better to use our 25k limit NFCU cards or a smaller Cap One 7k limit cards? 

OR does it even matter which one?

I will definitely give this a go! 

[Anonymous]

Yes it very much matters I am very glad that you asked that question. Do not use a credit union card, use a national bank card. And definitely use one under 25K credit limit. We’re still working out the line on one of them, I can’t remember which one it is, but either way if you use the one with under 25K limit, you’re good.

I’m glad you asked that question because that was the information I forgot to provide.

[Anonymous]

For some strange reason we’ve noticed that sometimes credit union cards are ignored which could inadvertently result in the revolving balance penalty to the tune of about 15 points(Classic 8). So you don’t want to use a credit union card.

Although some cards simply give a different score, like I used a particular credit union card for my AZEO card and it only gave me one point less on the mortgage score but it depends on the credit union. So don’t take a chance.

And the algorithms exclude cards with credit limits over a certain amount but that amount varies by algorithm. But 25K is lower than both of them so if you just use that, You are good. And you’re very welcome.

[Anonymous]

A couple more points I’d like to make for you. If you’re planning to do a mortgage app, you definitely do not want any inquiries or new accounts between now and then. And there may be a workaround to put you back where you were in a manner of sorts.

I’m assuming you’re married. You referred to “we” I believe when you spoke of the mortgage and your plans. Well I’m assuming that your spouse also has a credit file and credit cards. What is their oldest card? Can you be added as an authorized user or a joint account holder? If so it would count towards your mortgage scores even if it could be possibly excluded from your FICO 8 & 9. The question is do they have a card that is that old that you can be added to? By the way how old was the card that dropped off?

[Anonymous]

I just went back and reread the thread, you definitely got rebucketed. Your oldest account was 23 years and is now 8 years. No one knows where the break point is. But you went from an aged score sheet to a non-aged score sheet

[Anonymous]

Oh good, I'm glad I asked that question then. So weird about the CU cards. Okay, I'll use the other ones then. (for my husband and I both)

[Anonymous]

Yes, married. Hmm, he doesn't have as many and his are about the same age as mine. But we are already auth users on several of each of our cc accounts.

And bummer, it does seem so! So right now, that just means I was rebucketed for TU? Or does that extend to all?? (the account only fell off of TU so far and no big drops on the other scores yet...praying it sticks on the others for awhile!)

Okay, I'm going to pay down all cards to 0 and use the Cap One Bank cards only for the time being. Is it best to pay them completely off each month? Or keep a very small balance on them since we will each only be using one of our cards? (both Cap One)

[Anonymous]

Ok, A couple things. Sometimes authorized user accounts do not count for FICO 8 and 9. But they always count for the mortgage scores. You were only rebucketed at TU, but if that account drops off the others, the same thing could happen there. Does your husband have an account older than eight years that shows up on TU? If not all you can do is play the waiting game. If so, you can be added as an AU or a joint account holder but AU would be much better because many creditors HP to add joint.

You can use all your cards if you want. But what matters is when they report you want them all to report zero except for that one from capital one. As long as you PIF before the closing date, it should report zero. If it makes it simpler for you just to use one card, that’s fine, whatever is easiest for you. But, you want a small balance to report on only that capital one, under $100 is fine. Everything else should report zero.