Transunion FICO scoring model VERY sensitive to paying off balances???

[Elliot0409]

I just noticed something VERY interesting.

I checked my FICO on MYFICO.COM 14 days ago on both TU and EQ.

My EQ score remained the same.

MY TU score score dropped about 40 points.

BOTH of my reports remained unchanged EXCEPT that I went from owing 4 credits cards $$ to only owing 1 credit card money.

I did NOT close any cards.

And the amount I owed the the 3 credit cards that I paid off was very small amounts...like a few hundred or LESS on each card.

It seems that by me paying off these credit cards on EQ did NOT affect my score at all but it did affect it VERY much on TU.

Very interesting..

Any thoughts or ideas?

[llecs]

I know you mentioned that you didn't close any CCs, but did the issuer close the card? Does it still say that it is open and in good standing on your CR?

Did anything else happen to TU (e.g. new TL, dropped TL, new baddies)?

If all else fails, look that two pages: look at the Credit-At-A-Glance page (very telling) and also look the pos/neg factors listed on pages 2 & 3 of your TU FICO report. Compare the before and after and report back any changes you may have found.

[Elliot0409]

Nothing at all changed...

The ONLY thing I noticed is that the Status Date changed on a few accounts that I disputed for accuracy.

The Date of last activity remained the same but the status date changed from 2007 to 12/2009.

Would the status date make a difference if the date of last activity still shows to be 2007.

It is from a negative account.

[llecs]

Are any of the account(s) you disputed OC accounts (e.g. CCs, loans, etc.)?

Is the dispute still ongoing or does it say in the comments that the TL is still being disputed?

When you dispute an OC account, the financial components are temporarily removed from scoring until the dispute is resolved. So, if you dispute a CC balance, for example, or even a late, the TL is removed from FICO's line of sight and that could drop your score. For example, if you dispute a CC because they were reporting in correctly, then the CL and the balance are removed from scoring even though they still report. If your other CCs have a high balances in relation to the CLs, then the end result would be higher CC utilization overall and that can drop your score.

DOLA on your CR should matter per your score (or at least I have been told that). DOLA can change each time you dispute, make a payment, write a letter, etc. The one date that cannot change is DOFD.

[Elliot0409]

My dispute was completed already. I was only disputing balances. I dont see any change from the report of 2 weeks ago with a score of 679 and the report from yesterday with a score of 628. See notes below.          Here are my positives and negatives from my score of 628      Understanding Your FICO® Score

628

• Hurting your score
• 1. Deliquency+public record
• 2. Recent missed payment
• 3. Bad payment history

• Helping your score
• 1. Low credit usage
• 2. Long account history

 Here are my positives and negatives from my score of 679.

Understanding Your FICO® Score

679

• Hurting your score
• 1. Deliquency+public record
• 2. Bad payment history
• 3. Recent public record
• 4. Short account history

• Helping your score
• 1. Low credit usage
• 2. Many accts. paid on time

[llecs]

Is there any possibility that the dispute is still ongoing. Most drag disputes out to 30 days. You may want to look at your new CR to see if "dispute" appears anywhere.

Also, look at your baddies. Some CAs/OCs can be nasty and add lates where there were none before. Finally, do a side-by-side comparison and study dates, late placement, late severity, CC balances, utilization, etc. Especially look at any CO'd OC accounts. Compare the last reporting dates between the two reports. Looks like some lates were added on those.

[Anonymous]

I'm just throwing this out for consideration, because I don't know if this could be a factor. 

OP no longer has the "short account history" as a negative factor in his score.  Could that be a part of the score drop, as in OP was "rebucketed" into another age of accounts group? 

Just asking, because the score bucketing thing still confuses the heck out of me.

What do ya think, llecs?  Possible contributing factor?

[Anonymous]

I'd hasten a guess that your score was higher while a negative account was under dispute. When the dispute was resolved, the tradeline began to factor into your FICO score again, and your score dropped.