We’re Tom Quinn & Tommy Lee - FICO Score Experts! Ask us anything.

[Anonymous]

If I have 10 cards with a total credit line of 100K and I carry 8K of debt all on one card that has a CL of 8.5K, why does my score suffer so much, whereas if I spread that 8K of debt evenly on my 10 cards, my score does not take such a hit? I would think spreading it over 10 cards is more risky, if you add up the minimum payments of all 10 cards vs the minimum payment on 1 card. The monthly commitment would be higher spread over 10 cards.

[Anonymous]

Is there a reason why scoring is purposely made difficult and confusing for the average consumer, or why there needs to be 40 different versions in additoon to the internal scoring of a particular Lender?

Couldn't it all be made much simpler instead of other reasons that are driven by Money?

[Dmessina666]

First off, thank you guys for doing this. My question is this.........

When Paid Charge-off accounts are just sitting there waiting to age off, and a consumer decides they want to dispute for whatever reason, the account is updated and effectively penalized their score and makes it seem like the derogatory account fresh and new???

Ive done this, unknowingly, and it wiped away my previous 37 months of on-time payments with Equifax. Thanks!

[SecretAzure]

• Why isn't there a guaranteed, positive path into the FICO scoring system for those with no credit?
  • Why do we rely on third parties (Capital One, Discover, Credit Unions, etc.) to be the ultimate deciding factor on whether one will start off on the right foot or the wrong? 

[Remedios]

My question is regarding FICO 10

If lenders do not wish or aren't required to provide TD, how will that impact scoring in TD version as it would be based only on fraction of accounts? 

Also, if lender doesn't wish to provide TD,  are they still going to have access to those reports, even though they "opted out" from providing data that contributes to score calculations?

Basically,  is "they can have it both ways" going to be a new reality. 

Thank you 

[Girlzilla88]

Thank you and Hello!       

Why are the penatlys so different between Credit B's if the 'negative marks' are the same for the different ones?!    For example EQ may give -10 points for high use while high use on an EX will give -5 or +5 etc why do they affect differently for the same issues?!   ((of course random figures just example))

[Girlzilla88]

On a different perspective is there anything you know that may be considered Uncommon Knowledge that you wish more people were aware of or knew about?!     Some things you may not even know to ask or know until after it is found out (usually by doing something bad/wrong).

[SouthJamaica]

Questions:

1.  Is there a separate revolving utilization scoring factor for "raw dollars" in total limits (as opposed to percentage of limits)? If so, what are the thresholds or breakpoints for this factor?

2.  Are there certain breakpoints or thresholds in percentage of aggregate revolving utilization? If so, what are they?

3.  Are there certain breakpoints or thresholds in percentage of aggregate installment loan utilization? If so, what are they?

4.  Why do one's FICO 8 scores drop when (a) all revolving accounts report a zero balance, and (b) one's only open installment loan is paid off?

5.  Is it accurate to say that with respect to a closed revolving account that has a balance, the balance is factored into the aggregate revolving utilization computation, but the limit is not?

[Meanmchine]

On the same day .......

Why can your FICO8 scores go up and at the same time  your FICO9s go down ?

[coreysw12]

Why do mortgages still use (very) old FICO 2, 3, and 5 models?

Which carries more weight: utilization of specific credit cards, or overall utlization across all cards?

And finally, is utilization factored into scores by the range it falls into (where any utlization in a certain range, say 20-29%, results in the same score), or is it more linear (where, for example, 26% utilization might result in a higher score than 27%)?