What goes into "seeking credit" reason code?

[Anonymous]

I think the inquiry saturation point differs by scorecard, but I’m not discounting the possibility of multiple thresholds.

Yeah definitely, my Experian technical issue theory is the least exciting theory, what’s up with Experian lately?

[SouthJamaica]

Yeah well @Anonymous 's scientific analysis of Experian's issues makes it seem more exciting

[Anonymous]

Cassie’s is by far the most exciting indeed!

[Anonymous]

I forgot about these 2 TU 8 score change alerts I got back in January 2019:

• -4 pts on Jan 20, 2019
• +4 pts on Jan 22, 2019

It's similar to what SouthJamaica experienced, only in reverse with the loss/gain.

The interesting thing here is that I had a scorable inquiry from January 23, 2018 due to age out on January 23, 2019.

I only had 2 open accounts on file at the time of those alerts, and they had already closed/reported during the first week of January, so there wasn't any account update that triggered that.

I got all 4 reason statements with each score change alert - nothing changed between them.

[Revelate]

Put simply FICO 8 reason codes suck for everyone (except the TU alerts here for myFICO as one weird exception from a bygone era).  If you ever see positive statements just roll your eyes as they are interpreting some things and they aren't relevant and should be ignored for any real analysis.  The negative reason codes there are still accurate but they likely won't be complete.

Once you start climbing the scoring ranks you start getting fewer and fewer reason codes.  They do absolutely exist they are just suppressed.

I am really doubtful there are other aging breakpoints for inquiries on F8 and earlier besides the exclusion at 1 year, I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are not on F4.  F9 I have seen some really weird shifts but I never had good enough tracking to really analyze it.  If that score ever winds up in the EX product I will go test but sadly that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

Anyway technically for F8 and earlier for the full list in the positive (top 8) scorecards I don't think you can get fewer than 4 reason codes unless you have something insane like 30 years of bullet proof history where you sat on your hands 20+ of them or something absurd.  There are so many reason codes and it's almost impossible to push some of the aging metrics among others off the table.

Seeking credit is absolutely a reason code in the top 8 and yes it's still on there if you got the full reason codes SJ .  

[Anonymous]

Yeah I feel better now. Because I knew the code had to be there if you have at least one inquiry within the last 12 months, so it’s just suppressed. Thanks for explaining Rev!

And we know what’s causing Experian’s technical issues now too, thanks to Cassie 😉

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
And we know what’s causing Experian’s technical issues now too, thanks to Cassie 😉

---

I wasn't the first to suggest it.

(2016) Cisco says router bug could be result of ‘cosmic radiation’

It's very common in the IT industry to blame things on Cisco, gamma rays, and neutrinos - in that order.

[Anonymous]

Yes I remember those being the excuses for a lot of random errors. Lol. The entropy is increasing right?

[Anonymous]

I found it interesting that my SO got the "seeking credit" negative reason code when he opened his 5th account in 12 months (7 months, to be exact) in August (1 installment, 3 revolving, 1 AU - also opened in last 7 months). Only 1 inquiry, period, in the last 24 months reporting and it was not a new inquiry when the negative reason code cropped up.

This month he now has a positive reason code of "not seeking credit" lol the "seeking credit" code has now dropped off.

Leaves me boggled how he went from seeking credit to not seeking credit with no new changes like the inquiry aging off or reaching a year old or the newest account reaching a certain threshold of age. Maybe number of accounts in the last 3 or 6 months?

Anyway, from what I have seen regarding the "seeking credit" code is that it doesn't have anything to do with number of inquiries, but number of new accounts, which to me makes sense since not all new accounts require inquiries from that specific bureau. How many new accounts reporting would be a bit more concrete, even though there are exceptions with accounts not reporting to all 3 bureaus, but we have to consider they are only going off of info being reported to their bureau, so accounts and not inquiries would make more sense. Although inquiries do mean seeking credit so maybe there are 2 thresholds: inquiries and new accounts

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Anyway, from what I have seen regarding the "seeking credit" code is that it doesn't have anything to do with number of inquiries, but number of new accounts, which to me makes sense since not all new accounts require inquiries from that specific bureau. How many new accounts reporting would be a bit more concrete, even though there are exceptions with accounts not reporting to all 3 bureaus, but we have to consider they are only going off of info being reported to their bureau, so accounts and not inquiries would make more sense. Although inquiries do mean seeking credit so maybe there are 2 thresholds: inquiries and new accounts

---

I think it's all about inquiries.  One can bank a bunch of new inquiries with no new accounts.  They apply for a handful of CCs and get denied, apply for a couple of loans and get denied, go for HP CLIs on current CCs and get denied, etc.  All of that is definitely credit seeking though and I would expect those attempts (HPs hitting the CR) to generate a credit seeking reason code on many files even if no new accounts are opened.

I guess the best way to "test" it would be to look at the negative reason codes provided once new inquiries hit but prior to new accounts showing up.  Then revisit the negative codes again after the new account(s) report.  My guess is that the credit seeking reason code is known to show up before any new accounts do, which IMO would verify that they're inquiry-related.  Just my personal thought on the subject based on the wording of different reason codes; I have no personal testing on the subject of course.