@Anonymous wrote:Hi! First time post here.
So I checked my score for the first time ever a few months ago when myFico was giving out free scores for joining the board. I was reported as a 714. Not bad for never having paid attention to my credit.
I had about 17k in debt out of 35k available credit. Since that time, I have payed it down to 11k in debt. The troubling part is that today when I bit the bullet and signed up for myFico, it reported the same score as 688! The ONLY thing that has changed in 2 months is the ratio. I also added my wife onto my cards as an AU (look at me I'm using the lingo!)
What is going on? Was the "free equifax score" BS?
I can't speak for whether or not the promo was BS just to hook people or not, but there are ALOT of factors that go into credit scoring and with everything going on, there might be other factors. I personally have seen my score act like a rollacoaster and the funny thing is, all I have done is good stuff and all that has occured on my reports are good and there should be no reason for my score to ever dip, but it does. Its a monster that although many claim to understand, no one will EVER truly understand. Take it as a marker and don't over dwell on it. Remember that many things affect the score and it could be something you don't realize or see but has an effect. Best way is to print out the report from then and print the report from now and go through it line by line and see what changed, then decide based on what we know if it was good/bad/ugly/neither and see where you might find explanation of the difference. Hope that helps.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
If you have any charge-offs, collections, etc., check the dates on them to make sure that they're not being "re-aged" --reported with current dates, instead of the dates that they actually happened. This will hurt your scores by making the baddies appear to be more recent than they are.
CA's like to do this in order to get your attention.
Funny you mentioned this, I said this exact same thing a while back and someone jumped on me and said IT NEVER HAPPENS, no such thing. Since they were a "veteran" if you will, I was inclined to assume I was wrong, so was I right and this happens or no it doesn't happen? dang nabit, sometimes I think credit was an evil created just to screw with mankind or just the CRAs 
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Well, the problem is that I'm repeating what I have heard reported. And we all know that a lot of "stuff" gets repeated around here that isn't necessarily so.
But I've read it enough, from enough people who I consider trustworthy, that I think that it probably happens. It's not supposed to happen, but neither is asking for GW and winding up with disputes on all three reports that say they were initiated by consumer. (My own tiny contribution to CRA/ lender insanity.)
That's actually how I knew about this and learned it happens. Plus it happened to two of my own accounts after they were disputed. So I figured, it must have been something to it. 
funny, you are right, supposed to and what happens are not alwyas consistent.
@Anonymous wrote:The negatives are AAoA, and the percentage of usage. Never had a charge off, collection, not seeking credit etc. That is why it seem so strange.
Adding an AU doesn't change the score does it?
Make sure you AAoA didn't somehow get readjusted or recalculated weird, compare them with previous reports and see if they are consistent. Does your util vary greatly within 30-90 day period? Remember between increase and update to paid off, there is a lag. Usually an AU can't hurt you too much but I am going to let someone who knows for sure answer that one.
