Sudden unexplained drop in Fico 5/4/2

[Thomas_Thumb]

The older Fico models are very sensitive to # of cards/accounts with balances. So, if you only have a few cards then increasing # of cards with balances can drop score quite a bit. The sensitivity is elevated if you have recent inquiries. My EQ score 5 dropped from 809 to 765 going from 3 of 6 to 6 of 6 cards with small balances.

Also, as mentioned above, Experian score 2 looks at charge card utilization based on current/high balance. Your ratio is above 29% so that could be triggering the "heavy use" reason code.

Fico 8/9/10 often ignore authorized account utilization. However, AUs are always considered in the older Fico models.

Also, AU accounts count toward # of accounts with balances. Any significant changes in AU account balances?

[nothing02]

Thank you for that. I t s

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

The older Fico models are very sensitive to # of cards/accounts with balances. So, if you only have a few cards then increasing # of cards with balances can drop score quite a bit. The sensitivity is elevated if you have recent inquiries. My EQ score 5 dropped from 809 to 765 going from 3 of 6 to 6 of 6 cards with small balances.

Also, as mentioned above, Experian score 2 looks at charge card utilization based on current/high balance. Your ratio is above 29% so that could be triggering the "heavy use" reason code.

Fico 8/9/10 often ignore authorized account utilization. However, AUs are always considered in the older Fico models.

Also, AU accounts count toward # of accounts with balances. Any significant changes in AU account balances?

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Thank you for that. No, I don't have any authorized users on my cards. And you know what, I actually made a mistake in my previous post. I stated that one of my cards had a $0 balance and then it increased to $900. Actually, the balance was at $2485 and then went down to $900. The number of cards with balances remained the same, 4/15, and the total balances decreased by $2000. So this is still a big mystery.

[Thomas_Thumb]

It's not authorized users on your cards (accounts) - it's accounts where you are listed as an authorized user by others.

Btw - you should list score drops on EQ, TU and EX individually for the mortgage scores and Fico 8. That may provide some insight on identifying cause(s) of your score drops. Most critical are account balance details at the point in time when your old and new scores were generated.

[nothing02]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

It's not authorized users on your cards (accounts) - it's accounts where you are listed as an authorized user.

Btw - you should list score drops on EQ, TU and EX individually for the mortgage scores and Fico 8. That may provide some insight on identifying cause(s) of your score drops.

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I see--I am not an authorized user on anyone else's card, either. I only ran TU in October but I did run TU and Experian just now. Here are those numbers:

October:

TU 5/4/2: 775

TU 8: 777

December:

TU 5/4/2: 733

TU 8: 780

EX 5/4/2: 734

EX 8: 759

I do have scores from back in June from all 3 bureaus. I'll list those too. The situation was not radically different back then, though utilization ratio was higher (13%) because I have opened a few new cards since then and there were 9 accounts with balances, not 8.

EX 5/4/2: 739

EX 8: 757

EQ 5/4/2: 782

EQ 8: 790

TU 5/4/2: 786

TU 8: 772

[jocko61]

There needs to be a major class action lawsuit against these credit reporting agencies, especially Fico. What they are are doing is messing with your ability to get financed for very important things like houses, and even lease agreements on rental properties. Understandably they are there to protect the banks from people who have a history of bad credit or no credit history. Understandably credit is not a right, but the creditors and reporting agencies do have to follow rules. It is wrong that Fico has a million different scoring models where they have no problem giving you a high score to go out and get junk credit, such as credit cards and vehicles, but if you want to make a good purchase such as a house, best of luck to you ! You better get yourself in a lot of debt and pay that debt off slowly over time and hope you 5,4 , 2 scores get to at least 625. The best thing for everyone is to not play the credit game. Boycott banks that use unfair reporting agencies like FICO. If all possible save money and pay cash for everything.