Score goes down?

[Credit_Ranger]

Two weeks ago I purchased a TU report from my Fico.  My score at that time was 695.  In the last two weeks I was able to remove 3 paid tax liens from my report and pay down my credit card balances.  I now have 0 public records on my report.

My utilisation went from 35% to 21%.  My # of accounts showing balances went from 11 to 9.

I figured this would put me in the low 700s, but NO, my new score with lower utilisation and the paid tax liens deleted went DOWN to 684.  There were no other changes.  AAofA is 4 years on both reports. 

How can my score actually go down?

Thanks in advance for any insight here.

...Ranger out

[llecs]

You bought your TU FICO from here two weeks ago. Did you buy your second TU FICO from here too?

Look at the pos/neg items listed on the pages 2 or 3 of your FICO reports (both of them). Did the order of those items change? Are old items removed and new ones added when comparing both reports?

[Credit_Ranger]

Let's see.

The TU Fico purchased today from MyFico has.

Here are the negative factors from today:

1)You have a serious delinquency (60 days past due or greater) or a derogatory description on your credit report.  (I have a 30 + 60 day late from 4.5 years ago.  (This remains on both reports.)

2) You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit. (21%)

3) You've recently been looking for credit. (4 Hard Inquiries)

Here are the negative factors from 10 days ago:

1) You have a public record and a serious delinquency on your credit report.

2)You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit. (35%)

3) You have a short credit history. (Oldest account 15years 9 mos/  AAofA 4 years)

[llecs]

Thanks! It helps. Assuming you have no other PRs (judgments, BKs, liens, etc.), and based on your response, then you could have been rebucketed. I always hate throwing that out as a first response, but if nothing was added to your CRs and only these three PRs were removed, and you have no other judgments reporting and nothing else changed, then this is a probable answer. If you want the low-down on rebucketing say so, but a drop in score isn't a bad thing. A setback is a setup for a comeback. Your score will increase much quicker and higher now. If nothing else changes to your CR, I bet you'll see monthly gains here soon.

[Credit_Ranger]

Rebucketed!?

That does not sound like fun.  I have a basic understanding that this means I am "now playing with the big kids", but any explanation you can offer would be helpful.  I mean, I ditched three public records and my score went DOWN.  

The rest of my credit is like this:

1 Credit Card 30 day + 60 day late.  4.5 years ago

1 Credit Card 30 day late 4.5 years ago.

1 Utility paid collection account $105, 6 years ago

about 30 Paid as agreed/Never late revolving accounts.  (Some closed in the past)

about 6 Paid as agreed/Never late installment accounts (Some closed in the past.  2 current open)

What happens now assuming I have been rebucketed.  I have already paid my utilisation down to about 10% but it hasn't yet hit the reports.  I don't see anything more I can do.

What happens if the three derogs above go away?  Do I get "rebucketed" again?

Thanks in advance.

...Ranger out

[llecs]

FICO scoring is very complex. Your score is dependent on everyone else's score.

I use the college analogy. Ever have that one professor who grades on a bell curve? If everyone takes an exam and the highest grade is an 89%, then basically nobody got an "A" on the exam. In a curve, the professor will curve the grades to where that 89% becomes an "A" and everyone else follows. Like with grades, FICO will do the same based on everyone else's credit grade (for lack of a better term). In other words, if the economy tanks even further and everybody does bad, then not everyone will have scores in the pits. Those with the highest scores will set the standard for everyone else and new baddies reporting would be less impactful had everyone tanked.

There are scorecards (aka buckets). FICO doesn't publish the exact number but we surmise there are about a dozen and it varies by score version. We are guessing that there are buckets for those in a BK or those with public records. Maybe there are bucket(s) for those with recent lates. Maybe there are buckets for those with major derogs (90 or worse). There are buckets for those with a long history. Buckets for those with a short history. Buckets for those with a thin file. And so on. We can only guess what those buckets are, but based on posts like yours, we get an idea. You can only be in one bucket at a time and had you had other PRs reporting, you won't leave that bucket unless all PRs are gone. So, for example, if you have a new judgment reporting, you won't get rebucketed for quite some time, or until it is deleted.

Why buckets? To make it fair. It would be unfair for your credit profile to be directly compared with someone who has a super long and clean history. Conversely, it would be unfair for others with a PR to be directly compared to you. You are compared to others with a similar credit profile. As your credit improves or changes, then so does your chance for you to be rebucketed.

The positive and negative factors on your FICO report are indicative of your scoring bucket. Whenever you see them dramaticly shift, then you could have been rebucketed. For example, a positive indicator could now become a negative. #3 could be #1. A negative indicator turns positive. And so on. Based on your bucket, and what you posted, compared to others, your remaining derogs are a bigger drag on score while others, on average, have less going on. Because your length of history/AAoA went away, compared to others, your hisotry is longer. And compared to others within your bucket, more people have less inquiries than you do.

Now what does this all mean? It now means that the baddies now weigh more than they did before. On the flip side, once removed, you'd see larger score gains that you would see before. You'll find that your utilization would be more sensitive and you'd see more gains than before. And unfortunately, adding new TLs and inquiries will have a bigger drag than before. But your score has a much greater chance at improving faster and stronger.

[BrownSugah66]

WOW!!!  This is some good stuff!!!

llecs...Thank you sooo very much for educating us on buckets and rebucketing. Awesome information!!!!

[Booner72]

Woo Hoo Credit Ranger - The tax liens?  I thought you were going to just wait it out. 

N I C E

[Credit_Ranger]

I had two paid liens.  I managed to get them deleted from TU and  EQ.  On EX, one remains.  It is due to roll off early next year.  The other, which was paid in late 2004 is an interesting story.  CA CIVIL CODE, sec 1785.13 states that (paraprasing) no Consumer Credit Reporting agency shall report a paid tax lien for more than 7 years from date of payment.  This is of course Experian's policy as well.   But it ALSO states, further down in the section, in section 7d that no Consumer Credit Reporting agency shall report ANY adverse information that predates the report by 10 years.  The lien in question was filed in 2000.  In one of my numerous call to EX I finally got a CSR to read this code and agree that they were obligated to comply.  It was deleted within 2 hours!  How about that?

Study, learn and persist, my friends.  I am so grateful to the folks on this forum who give so freely of their time an experience.

In particular (and not discounting the efforts of so many others) I want to personally thank llecs for taking so much time to explain the mysteries of Fico scoring to me personally and certainly many others as well.

...Ranger out