So my FICO8 is capped at 774 not even AZEO helps (was: Effect of one inquiry on FICO8 and FICO2)

[Anonymous]

By the way, I can’t remember exactly the limit. I thought it was $35,000 but then I think somebody at $29K was excluded, but if you use a card with a CL under $25K, it should work fine for FICO 2.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I have been letting a couple of cards report small balances. One only has a $5k limit, and I let it report a $30-40 balance, so that's working. But I'm still stuck at 774 on FICO-8 for some mysterious reason. However, I gather FICO-2 is the mortgage score and it's doing well so I guess that's fine. FICO-8 is weird though.

[Anonymous]

As long as it is a national bankcard, not retail, not CU, not over 27K?, not an AU, you should be good to just let one report, especially for best scores on FICO-2. I think optimal is 20% of revolvers reporting or less. Might be 25%, can't recall off the top of my head.

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:
By the way, I can’t remember exactly the limit. I thought it was $35,000 but then I think somebody at $29K was excluded, but if you use a card with a CL under $25K, it should work fine for FICO 2.

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I was looking at this recently - the EX2 (Auto and Bankcard, anyway) threshold is definitely lower than the EQ5/TU4 threshold (assumed to be $35k) - I've verified that a $26k limit does count, but a $30k limit does not.  I haven't dialed it in more exactly than that (yet).

The reason codes end up looking really odd when testing this - you can get "There are no recent balances on your revolving and/or open-ended accounts." at the same time as "You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.".

Due to MyFICO hiding reason codes when within 50 points of max, I've only been able to test EX2 Auto and EX2 Bankcard, but the base EX2 ("mortgage") version is likely using the same thresholds.

[Anonymous]

Yes it was thought to be 35 until someone was excluded with a 29. Or a 27. That’s why I said if you are at 25K or less you should be good as long as it’s a national bank card.

Yes, it totally ignores it as far as AZEO and accounts with the balance therefore, I think. But yes it still goes towards utilization! Just don’t ask me why. LOL.

[Anonymous]

And inquiries or accounts under 12 months increases the signal strength on EX2 for the penalty for greater number of accounts with a balance it is believed.

iv thank you for the data point that 26K works on EX2.

[Anonymous]

And yes I totally concur that all versions of EX2 would most likely be using the same cut off amount.

One day we will dial it down find the exact cut off, but meanwhile we just have to use the shorter de-duplication window (14 day) and the lower cut off of EX2 (26K?) in optimizing for the mortgage scores.

[Anonymous]

Replying to this necro thread. 

I was stuck at this bucket that was limiting me around 745 for my FICO score. Stayed there for a year, no matter what I did it moved only a couple points up and down. So the "bucket" concept seems real. 

I got a mortage which reported for the first time in October, and was the first installment loan on my file - instant 15 point boost to my score. So, looks like I'm out of the bucket.

[Anonymous]

I suppose to depends on how you define "bucket."  Many people use the term bucket to mean scorecard assignment.  In other words, if someone is "rebucketed" they are said to move from one scorecard to another.  Using that terminology, since absence/presence of an installment loan is not a scorecard assignment factor, I would say the addition of one would not change your bucket.  Of course one exception to that would be in going from a thin to a thick file, which wouldn't necessarily have to come from an installment loan.

Now if we're loosely using the term bucket to indicate a scoring plateau reached within a scorecard, it would make sense that a profile-changing event such as the addition of a first installment loan aiding credit mix could help push past it.