Stats are up, score is down - I don't get it

[Phoenix-rising]

Yesterday I got a scorewatch message that my FICO score decreased.  I didn't expect a 15 point decrease so I used one of my free Score Power reports to see if anything changed for the worse.  I compared it to a ScorePower report from 6 months ago and one from 2 years ago.  Every stat I checked is better now than it was 6 months ago and better than 2 years ago.  Did something change in the way FICO scores are calculated now?  These are the stats from then and now:

	12/7/2008	6/12/2010	12/7/2010
Score	775	745	730
Payment history	great	great	great
Amount of debt	good	good	good
Length of credit history	very good	very good	great
Amount of new credit	good	good	very good
Accounts	25	26	26
Accts w/ balances	7	9	7
Accts opened in past yr	1	0	0
Recent inquiries	4	3	2
Collections	0	0	0
Public Records	0	0	0
Ratio of revolving credit	23%	18%	16%
AAoA	5Y	6 Y	7Y
Oldest Acct	23Y, 4M	24Y, 10M	25Y, 4M
Newest Acct	4M	1Y	1Y, 6M

On the Understanding your score section, the "Hurting your Score" items have changed from:

(in Dec 2008)

1. You opened a new account relatively recently

(in June 2010)

1. Amount owed on Revolving accounts is too high

2. You opened a new account relatively recently (1Yr)

(to Dec 2010)

1. Too many CCs with balances

2. Recently looking for credit

What could I be overlooking that caused the drop in my score?  As far as I can see, between June and December the stats that have changed have changed for the better and the only thing that got worse was my FICO score.  There were never any late payments or derogs on my reports, so I can't imagine I've been re-bucketed.

Edited to add scores from December 2008, 2 years ago when my FICO was 775. 

[Anonymous]

You probably got rebucketed based on length of credit history or AAoA. Most people with 25+ years of history and/or an AAoA of 7 years probably haven't looked for new credit in a while, so you appear relatively worse in the new bucket. As it is a better bucket, you will likely recover the lost points and gain as much or more compared to your old bucket when the inquiries and new account effects wear off.

[Anonymous]

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@Phoenix-rising wrote:

Yesterday I got a scorewatch message that my FICO score decreased.  I didn't expect a 15 point decrease so I used one of my free Score Power reports to see if anything changed for the worse.  I compared it to a ScorePower report from 6 months ago and one from 2 years ago.  Every stat I checked is better now than it was 6 months ago and better than 2 years ago.  Did something change in the way FICO scores are calculated now?  These are the stats from then and now:

	12/7/2008	6/12/2010	12/7/2010
Score	775	745	730
Payment history	great	great	great
Amount of debt	good	good	good
Length of credit history	very good	very good	great
Amount of new credit	good	good	very good
Accounts	25	26	26
Accts w/ balances	7	9	7
Accts opened in past yr	1	0	0
Recent inquiries	4	3	2
Collections	0	0	0
Public Records	0	0	0
Ratio of revolving credit	23%	18%	16%
AAoA	5Y	6 Y	7Y
Oldest Acct	23Y, 4M	24Y, 10M	25Y, 4M
Newest Acct	4M	1Y	1Y, 6M

On the Understanding your score section, the "Hurting your Score" items have changed from:

(in Dec 2008)

1. You opened a new account relatively recently

(in June 2010)

1. Amount owed on Revolving accounts is too high

2. You opened a new account relatively recently (1Yr)

(to Dec 2010)

1. Too many CCs with balances

2. Recently looking for credit

What could I be overlooking that caused the drop in my score?  As far as I can see, between June and December the stats that have changed have changed for the better and the only thing that got worse was my FICO score.  There were never any late payments or derogs on my reports, so I can't imagine I've been re-bucketed.

Edited to add scores from December 2008, 2 years ago when my FICO was 775. 

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In addition to what was previous said the negative impact of having too many cards with balances and recently looking for credit are what is bringing down your score the most presently. In the order they appear on FICO CR is the order in the impact of the score.

1. Too many CC's with balances. This is what is hurting your score the most. In your circumstance you have 26 accounts in total. No mention of how many are open and or closed, so I will go on the assumption that you still have 10 open accounts. You are carrying balances on 7-9 respectively and that is a ding in FICO scoring. Example if you have 10 open accounts then you should not have more then 4 with balances for FICO scoring. While your UTIL isn't bad I would also try and bring it down some more to be under 10%, the lower the better for FICO scoring. 

2. Recently looking for credit. This is 2nd most impact on your scores. Applying and having an INQ is a ding but IMO it isn't a very big ding where it does not recover fairly quickly. If approved then adding a new account will also have a ding in your score, but also recovers fairly quickly.

[vanillabean]

Something is missing from this picture. Lates of any kind? How many cards with balances? Is "Ratio of revolving credit" your calculation or what's listed in your score report?

[Anonymous]

you crossed the 25yr mark with your oldest account.  possible rebucket???

[Phoenix-rising]

I've never had any lates or derogs of any kind on my report.  The ratio of revolving credit is directly from my Scorewatch report.  As far as "recently looking for credit" back in April I called AT&T to add a new phone line at the house.  They dinged my credit report TWICE and of course telephone accounts don't show up as TL's so there isn't much I can do about that.  It didn't dawn on me that AT&T would ding my credit report.

I don't know how store charge cards factor in, but that's been the only real change in my report.  Back in 2008 I had "charge accounts" for Old Navy, Best Buy, Circuit City, Dell and Target.  I also have three Wells Fargo TLs for furniture purchases which adds up to 8 charge accounts.  Back in 2008 all those charge accounts were Open except for 2 of the Wells Fargo accounts.  Two years later the only one of those charge accounts that's not listed as closed is the Dell account.  I didn't use the other charge accounts and they were closed for inactivity.  PERHAPS THOSE OPEN CHARGE ACCOUNTS HELPED MORE THAN I THOUGHT THEY DID.  I really thought charge accounts didn't factor in the way credit cards do.  I would have kept them active if I thought the TL's helped the score that much.

Aside from the 8 charge accounts, I have the same 8 credit cards now that I had in 2008.  All 8 CC accounts have been open on all the reports.  I had a balance on 4 of the 8 CCs in 2008, a balance on 7 of the CCs in June 2010, and a balance on 5 of the CCs this month.  The rest of the accounts are installments and mortgages.