Using Inactive Account caused 10 point Drop

[Thomas_Thumb]

Yes, I too am puzzled on how an inactive => active is triggered if balance is zero. My guess is one of the inactive cards must have reported a non zero balance. It is possible to use a card on statement close date, have the balance report to the CRAs and then pay balance later that day. If this happened, the card statement could potentially show a zero balance but the CRA reports would show non zero. However, the OP indicates otherwise

As far as the score drop, I would normally associate it with an increase in # cards reporting a non zero balance.

The score drop described here does not appear to be caused by a spike in utilization based on the OP's comments.

[cem13]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating.  When you received an "alert" for the Sportsman's Visa yesterday, this alert was from the myFICO 3B credit monitoring product, right?

One definite thing this seems to show -- which I regard as significant -- is that the CMS's "once inactive now active" alert can be triggered even when the balance is staying a constant $0.  Which is interesting.

On the other hand all we can say with 100% certainty is that in the last few weeks something changed in your profile to cause a score drop, and myFICO reported the drop when an alertable event happened.  The alertable event was without question the S-Visa reporting, but the thing that caused the drop might have been a non-alertable change in the profile happening weeks ago or more. 

This sort of thing happens a huge amount around here.  People write in baffled as to why Event X could have caused a score drop.  The most recent person I responded to about this (last week I think) was a guy who was scandalized that FICO could have lowered his score because he received a credit limit increase.  What is certain is that a CLI could not have in itself caused his score to drop, but it was indeed the thing that triggered the alert -- the drop must have happened due to a change in the profile that happened earlier.

I am not saying with certainty that this must be what happened in your case, but it happens so often that it's worth considering.

Another reason I think it is worth considering is that FICO's models do in fact interpret a profile with a $0 balance across all cards as identical to a person who is not using his cards at all.  In other words, for the scoring model, the only way it conceptualizes "inactivity" is when balances are at $0.  That's actually a primitive way for FICO to work -- it should be designed to look at the date of last use.  But it doesn't.  If the scoring model had factors that assessed how recently you have used a card, it wouldn't need to use the All Zero = Not Using Your Cards rule, as we know it does.

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Yes.  I have 3B Fico.

I received an alert just a few days ago when my only CC with a balance reported for the month.  So the only item triggering my drop is the point drop.

Also, like I mentioned, I pulled a copy of my TU and EQ directly from the CRA and compared it to the previous report about a month ago.  Nothing else in my file changed except the CC balance change, which triggered a 2 point gain a few days ago.

So the inactive alert for the SMG Visa was the trigger.  Also I charged $6 and paid it via the website that same day.  So SMG Visa reported $0 balance.  So it is NOT another CC reported a balance.  Also the BBVA triggered an alert for inactive but it was only 4 months.

[elim]

So I went out with a friend tonight and she was talking about a recent large bill she just paid.  She said "...and I had to use a credit card. I haven't had to use one in like 6 months".

I remembered this thread after wondering all day why in the heck would FICO ding you for pulling a CC from the SD and put in rotation to show use. Pretty sure they should change their model to say "used A credit card after using none" instead of "rotated a dormant CC" to let us that actually rotate cards keep our scores. Anything to ding the scores of the borrower I would imagine. 

Ding for not having a CC

Ding when you app for a CC

Ding when a CC reports

Ding when you use a CC

Ding for rotating a CC

Fair Isaac... awesomeness since 1956  <smirk of sarcasm>

lol, risk assessment? really?  more like sheep assessment

sorry, we did have some drinks

baa  baaaa

[cem13]

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@elim wrote:

Ding for not having a CC

Ding when you app for a CC

Ding when a CC reports

Ding when you use a CC

Ding for rotating a CC

sorry, we did have some drinks

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I hope you had enough drinks to make you forget about all those dings?

I received an alert for "account not used for 4 months is now active" without any "dings".  Now I cannot say if this would normally "ding" me because I already took a 10 point hit from my SGV the day earlier.  So it is possible that I would have received the hit on the BBVA with 4 months.

FICO must view 3 months as "normal".  I will continue to test this theory when I rotate my cards again in a few months.  I will certainly wait for 4 months but not 6 months and wait for the reported.

The interesting part is that TU and EQ "dinged" me exactly 10 points each whereas EX did not trigger an alert.  I have NOT looked at my EX in the past few weeks but I am sure SGV reported to EX.  So why did EX not drop (if reported)?

[Windfall]

What's so weird is that I just got an alert that one of my accounts that had been inactive for 5 months (which actually isn't true, not sure why) had an increase of $589 which triggered my score with Experian to go UP by 7 points!  Scoring is so strange.

[cem13]

UPDATE:

My PenFed AMEX reported to EX today.  I received an alert that "an account inactive for 5 months, recently became active".  It did NOT change my score.

So there are 2 options for my theory:  

1) There is a 6 month timeframe to use CC that become active to trigger a score drop OR 

2) The first score drop for an inactive account will negate a score drop for any other "inactive accounts becoming active"