Trying to Understand TU scoring

[wantmore]

On March 2, 2010, I ordered my TU score from myFico and it was 759.

Today, after I renewed my Fico Quarterly Monitoring of TU, it was 712.

The only real difference between the reports are a decrease in all the balances and a new balance reported on my Sam's Card. See below:

                                                      3/2/2010               Today

 Sam's                                             0                             174

Total Debt on Non Mortgage    $9620                  $8461

Utilization                                        13%                      12%

Total Accounts w/balances           6                            7

I am confused. Help?

[smallfry]

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@wantmore wrote:

On March 2, 2010, I ordered my TU score from myFico and it was 759.

Today, after I renewed my Fico Quarterly Monitoring of TU, it was 712.

The only real difference between the reports are a decrease in all the balances and a new balance reported on my Sam's Card. See below:

                                                      3/2/2010               Today

 Sam's                                             0                             174

Total Debt on Non Mortgage    $9620                  $8461

Utilization                                        13%                      12%

Total Accounts w/balances           6                            7

I am confused. Help?

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Assuming you are correct and the only material difference is the number of accounts with balances and not a change in the way an account is reporting then accounts with balances has to be the reason.

[wantmore]

So will a new balance on one credit card make that much difference?

[Jazzzy]

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@wantmore wrote:

So will a new balance on one credit card make that much difference?

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I would be surprised if one more credit card reporting could make that much of a difference. We don't have any idea of how many cards that you have reporting, etc., so it's difficult to say. There are so many factors involved in a FICO score. It's tough to know for sure what's affecting yours.

Are you sure there is NO other difference? No new inquiries?

[wantmore]

No new inquiries. Last time I had applied for new credit was January 2, 2009.

No collection.

No public records.

Tu Checklist shows:    3/2/10                   4/16/10         Limits

                Mortgage        $76,876             $75,849  

                 Car                  $2,874                $2,248       

                Citi                   $4,553                $4,185         $19,030.00  

                BOA                 $1,126                $1,074         $3800.00

                AAA                  $488                   $392             $5700.00

                Exxon              $479                   $388             $1000.00

                Sams               $0                      $174             $1250.00      

I have several other cards (5) that have zero balances, with limits equalling 19,610. My total available credit is about $52,000. No credit limit reductions.

The Hurting score side:

The balances on your non-mortgage credit accounts are too high.  ($8461)

You have missed payments on your credit accounts. (3 years, 3 months ago)

You recently missed a payment. ( 3 years, 3 months ago)

The Helping score side:

There is no evidence of a serious delinquency (60 days past due or greater) or derogatory description on your credit report.

You have an established credit history.  (19 years)

You've limited the use of your available credit.  (12%)

[Anonymous]

Eeek.

Sometimes significant score changes occur if you are placed in a new bucket (scorecard).  What causes rebucketing is fairly well protected information.  It may be as simple as an increase in your AAofA.  Even length of time since most recent delinquency can cause significant changes in scores.

If you were rebucketed, you may see an initial score drop, as you are now being compared with a different group of folks.  Each bucket (scorecard) has its own point range, and you may be able to reach a higher score in your new bucket than you could in your old bucket.  Even if you stay within the same bucket, you may be in a different "bin" in the same bucket.  Some people think that bin changes can cause an even more abrupt score change than scorecard changes.

The best response is to keep paying your bills on time, keep that utilization down, and watch those inquiries and new accounts.  If you do those things, you'll see positive score results in the end.  Just don't worry too much about the roller coaster ride  FICO is insanely complex.

[smallfry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Eeek.

Sometimes significant score changes occur if you are placed in a new bucket (scorecard).  What causes rebucketing is fairly well protected information.  It may be as simple as an increase in your AAofA.  Even length of time since most recent delinquency can cause significant changes in scores.

If you were rebucketed, you may see an initial score drop, as you are now being compared with a different group of folks.  Each bucket (scorecard) has its own point range, and you may be able to reach a higher score in your new bucket than you could in your old bucket.  Even if you stay within the same bucket, you may be in a different "bin" in the same bucket.  Some people think that bin changes can cause an even more abrupt score change than scorecard changes.

The best response is to keep paying your bills on time, keep that utilization down, and watch those inquiries and new accounts.  If you do those things, you'll see positive score results in the end.  Just don't worry too much about the roller coaster ride  FICO is insanely complex.

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Makes more sense considering the depth of the drop.

[marty56]

TU is very sensitive to the number of accounts reporting a balance.  In TU's eye's, 2 $25 balances are worse than 1 $100 balance.  As my SIG says, I lost 17 points for going from 1 to 2 CCs reporting a balance and I seem to do the best on TU with no CCs reporting a balance and just my mortgage loan and auto loan reporting.  I gain 30 points for that case.

Easy way to verify this by not allowing your Sams card to report a balance.  It may take almost 2 months for that since GEMB is slow to report zero balances.

[wantmore]

The intersting part about all of this that my EQ score actually increase from 750 on 3/2/10 to 757 on 4/1/10.

I was hoping to see myself in the 760 club for both EQ and TU.

I guess I will wait and see if TU will rebound since I paid all my credit cards off this month except Citi.

(My utlization should drop to about 8% with one credit card showing a balance)

Thanks everyone.

[smallfry]

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@wantmore wrote:

The intersting part about all of this that my EQ score actually increase from 750 on 3/2/10 to 757 on 4/1/10.

I was hoping to see myself in the 760 club for both EQ and TU.

I guess I will wait and see if TU will rebound since I paid all my credit cards off this month except Citi.

(My utlization should drop to about 8% with one credit card showing a balance)

Thanks everyone.

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Best would be under 1%.