What goes into "seeking credit" reason code?

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

LAHossBoss: it doesn't.

all positive comments are fluff and always have been unfortunately regardless of who is making the assertion they don't come from the FICO algorithm and are therefore not reference.

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Thanks for the feedback, honestly the "not credit seeking" was just sort of a tangent to the real topic of this thread.

I was just curious more to the "credit seeking" negative reason code and saw this thread and it got me thinking about my own situation and what it means and why.

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous seeking credit is definitely inquiries and yeah with version 8, it's just hard to get good reason codes. Sometimes you can gain some insight by looking at the industry option reason codes. 

@Anonymous  There is a separate code for new accounts and there's a separate code for too many new accounts in a certain period of time (on EX2 anyway).

@Revelate question: we've always disregarded positive reason codes, but recently we found out that the MF interface, etc. was worked on by the same team that worked on the algorithm, so could some things mean something at MF, but not mean anything anywhere else? Thoughts?(@Anonymous )

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Actually my understanding is a different team altogether is the algorithm designers.

1) Large organization 

2) different pay scale

3) Different groups

4) I have found factual mistakes with their statements and they had to go ask others for correct information.

Color me extremely skeptical, the actual algorithms are tightly controlled IP the CMS is not.

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It's true, @Revelate . Tommy Lee, Director of Analytics Science at FICO, answered my question about it. (Link)

Me: Did analytics provide any input for the various ratings we see on a myFICO 3B report under Ingredients?

Tommy Lee: The same FICO analytics and data science team who work on developing the FICO Score also work on the analytics driving the myFICO ingredients.

The positive score factors could very well be set from values returned by the algorithm. It makes no sense that analytics would base it on anything else. It also makes no sense that the CRAs wouldn't be given the information to program theirs the same way - it won't give away any secrets whatsoever since they would only be using output values anyway.

The only question I have now is how reliable those positive score factors will be at narrowing down various characteristic values. That could be a very wide band.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I guess I should have specified this was EQ and not EX, if that makes a difference

I cant seem to pull up the codes for previous scores/dates, but I will see what I can dig up. I still have hesitancy to believe 1 inquiry in 8 years from many months prior to the code popping up just randomly made it appear. Again, I am certain all of this is worthless and meaningless, but I like to think I am just trying to make sense of a small piece of credit reporting and this is the forum to do so, as so many others are here to do the same thing.

The above nwgative reason codes have been consistent since I started tracking and I understand when 1 thing is remedied the list shifts, but in this case the code popped up at the appearance of the 5th account in several months. It went away and the negative reason codes were restored once again to what they had been prior to "seeking credit" appeared, since I guess the same reasons existed, but for a moment "credit seeeking" was more negative than the other above listed reasons.

This is the last time I will bring this up as to not seem cyclical/redundant (or like I am beating a dead horse) and I will see if I can dig up the old scores woth the negative reason code of "seeking credit" amd what it says, specifically triggered it.

Thanks as always for your input! I always learn so much from our banter.

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@Anonymous Keep in mind the value of a code can change, for instance, for new accounts, once more new accounts report, or seeking credit, as more inquiries are taken.

[MudkipsRKooL]

I got the "seeking credit" about a few months ago. I applied for 2 cards within a month of each other (March 2020/April 2020). I also tried getting another card, but decided not to go on the offer. I was hit with a "seeking credit" on some of my reports. But after 6 months (October) they're all gone. For me it seems like a -6 and +6 point gain.

[Anonymous]

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@MudkipsRKooL wrote:

I got the "seeking credit" about a few months ago. I applied for 2 cards within a month of each other (March 2020/April 2020). I also tried getting another card, but decided not to go on the offer. I was hit with a "seeking credit" on some of my reports. But after 6 months (October) they're all gone. For me it seems like a -6 and +6 point gain.

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Did the credit seeking code appear right after the inquiries hit but before the accounts reported for the first time?

[Anonymous]

My EX 2, EX Auto 2, EX Bankcard 2, and EX 3 reason statements shifted to include 'Seeking credit' 1-2 days after 2 inquiries were made on 2/14 and 2/15.

Below is from a myFICO 1B report for EX on 2/16.

EX 8 and EX Bankcard 8 only increased the ranking for 'Few accounts in good standing' (2 open cc on file, 1 closed loan).

FICO 2	EX	724	-26	698
[Change]	Short credit history, Seeking credit, Short revolving credit history, Amount owed on revolving accounts is too high
	Short credit history, Short revolving credit history, Amount owed on revolving accounts is too high, Too many accounts with balances

The full report from EX is here: Inquiry Damage to a Clean/Young/Thin File

[SouthJamaica]

Well, the same weird thing that happened last month on experian.com happened again this month.  Again my EX FICO 8 jumped 7 points, with the "seeking credit" code disappearing and a "substantial installment loan report" code being added. 

At least this time we know the actual reason -- something odd going on over at experian.com

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Well, the same weird thing that happened last month on experian.com happened again this month.  Again my EX FICO 8 jumped 7 points, with the "seeking credit" code disappearing and a "substantial installment loan report" code being added. 

At least this time we know the actual reason -- something odd going on over at experian.com

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That is totally crazy and for it to happen a second time is even crazier; they need to get their act together at Experian. 

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Well, the same weird thing that happened last month on experian.com happened again this month.  Again my EX FICO 8 jumped 7 points, with the "seeking credit" code disappearing and a "substantial installment loan report" code being added. 

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Winner: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Scoring Drama Series

I love this show. Watching my profile is sort of like watching C-SPAN compared to that.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Well, the same weird thing that happened last month on experian.com happened again this month.  Again my EX FICO 8 jumped 7 points, with the "seeking credit" code disappearing and a "substantial installment loan report" code being added. 

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Winner: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Scoring Drama Series

I love this show. Watching my profile is sort of like watching C-SPAN compared to that.

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Yes it's fun. I love having a few days where I can fantasize that FICO now recognizes that my 8 inquiries aren't so bad and that paying my installment loans down to 25% is great