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[Anonymous]

What determines whether an installment loan will code as a consumer finance account and do all installment loans from that financial institution get marked as consumer finance accounts? This is something that really confuses everyone because the reason code doesn't appear until you don't have any serious reason codes left. Some clarification would be wonderful. 

[ChargedUp]

Hello gentlemen, and thank you for your time!

- Is there any internal scoring difference between having loans or credit cards from a conventional bank (Chase, US Bank, Citi, etc.) vs. having similar products from a credit union in any FICO models?

- How is utilization scored on a "charge card" (ie: Amex Gold or Platinum) in regards to using a "Pay over Time" feature on FICO 10T?

- Are there any internal FICO scoring methods being used by any of the lesser spoken of credit reporting agencies? (Lexis Nexus, Sagestream, etc.)

- How long must one's "average age of accounts" be before it is possible to achieve an 850 FICO 8 score? 

- Are there any improvements/new features in the pipline for the My FICO subscription service? Once 10T goes live, will we have access to the same trending data as lenders with the subscription service?

[Anonymous]

Is this a correct interpretation of how the scoring module transforms percentages?

Balance / Limit

$541.00 / $6000 = 0.09016

0.09016 * 100 = 9.016% = 9.02%

ceiling(9.02) = 10.0

10% would be used for scoring, so 9.02% would not be considered under 10% for FICO scoring purposes.

[Anonymous]

Here's my question: If a consumer has a charge-off on their credit report, is it possible for him to obtain a high score, like in the 700's, or is that only possible once the charge-off ages off the report?

[Anonymous]

Another question: why does a negative event, such as a late payment, drop a FICO score immediately but a positive event, such as paying off a loan, doesn't immediately raise the score?

[Meanmchine]

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@ChargedUp wrote:

Hello gentlemen, and thank you for your time!

- How long must one's "average age of accounts" be before it is possible to achieve an 850 FICO 8 score? 

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Im also interested in this question

Let me add these questions ---

What's the minimum age your oldest account has to be to get an 850 score

How many active accounts do you need to have for an 850 score

Realistically, how is it remotely possible that an 18 year old college student can sport an 800+ score

Sorry CU if I trampled a little bit on your question

[lhcole77]

Can you please tell us more about this reason listed under negative score impacts?

How many is too many? What time period is considered recent? Ex: Open 2 new accounts within 60 days? 3 in 6 months? Etc.

Many New Accounts

You've recently opened too many new credit accounts.

The FICO® Score considers the number of recent credit account openings. Opening several credit accounts in a short time period is reflective of greater risk - especially for people with shorter credit histories.

[lhcole77]

Can you please tell us more about this reason listed under negative score impacts?

How many is too many? Is it a % of accounts or is it a raw number? Are only open accounts factored in? Or are closed accounts included as well? What is ideal accounts reporting a balance for just credit cards? What is ideal for all accounts?

Accounts With Balances

You have too many credit accounts with balances.

The FICO® Score considers the number of accounts on a credit report showing a balance. Generally speaking, carrying fewer accounts with balances is considered less risky. Your credit report may show a balance on credit cards even if they're paid in full each month. The total balance of the last statement is typically the amount shown on a credit report.

[longtimelurker]

A clarification of my earlier question to explain a little more in light of all the questions here!   My understanding has been that the FICO algorithm is derived from "big data" so while things might not apparently make sense, the correlation is there (and that's all that lenders need to know).  I thought that this might be why, for example,  AZEO can improve scores.  It's not obvious that having exactly one card showing a balance should indicate better credit worthiness, but data might show that.

So, in theory, if data mining showed that spending between $50 and $75 at an electronics store In March was highly correlated to a default within 6 months, a newer version of the algorithm would severely penalize such a purchase.   Is my data mining understanding correct, or is there more cause-and-effect input?

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What determines whether an installment loan will code as a consumer finance account and do all installment loans from that financial institution get marked as consumer finance accounts? This is something that really confuses everyone because the reason code doesn't appear until you don't have any serious reason codes left. Some clarification would be wonderful. 

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I want to piggyback on this question...why aren't there any indicators that a loan is a consumer finance account? We basically have to figure it out by process of elimination and educated guessing. If we can have a negative reason code for it, why aren't they easier to identify?

In addition to that, with auto manufacturer financing now coding as CFAs, we're effectively being punished for having good enough credit to qualify for their best rates. Is there something being done to change that?