What less than $100 will do to a FICO Score

[Anonymous]

Definitely!  A 22 point increase in going from AZ to AZEO is on the high end (most generally see 15-20 points) so you certainly made out well.

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

Yet another case where it is assumed that a generated alert is the cause of the corresponding score change being given. This is not usually the case....there is an alertable change detected and a new score given, but it can easily be a change on your report that does not create an alert that actually causes the score change. Always consider the alert and score change as 2 seperate facts...which may be unrelated.

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I have always wondered - is there something behind the credit scores that we cannot see at all? FICO tells us that it's payment history, credit mix, average age, Percent Utilizatio0on and a couple of other things, but I have seen instances where NONE of these changed and yet the score changed significantly. Many years ago I had a TL put on my CRA that cost me 100 pointys overnight. It was a Charge Off and it wasn't mine. I got it removed in a matter of a week (with some very convincing threats to the issuer that my lawsuit would be in the 6-figure range because they had just single handedly sabotaged a house purchase I was involved in), but when the TL was removed I only got back 40 of the 100 points. FICO would not explain why. Other things have happened to conmvince me that ANY debt is OK with FICO, but NO debt is bad. I have seen my score go up 15-45 points when I used a credit card to buy a $20 tank of gasoline, and seen those points come off when I paid the bill down to $0. That's why I call this thread "See what less than $100 can do to your score". No transaction on it was over 4100 yet my scores go up and down every time I charge something and every time I pay that something. NOTHING else has happened in my credit file in that time - at least nothing that I had any control over.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Other things have happened to conmvince me that ANY debt is OK with FICO, but NO debt is bad. I have seen my score go up 15-45 points when I used a credit card to buy a $20 tank of gasoline, and seen those points come off when I paid the bill down to $0. That's why I call this thread "See what less than $100 can do to your score".

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Yep.  It's definitely true that all revolving lines at $0 involves a scoring penalty (in all FICO models currently available).  The scoring penalty vanishes when the person has at least a few dollars on at least one card.  That fact is widely discussed here on the forums.  We can explain why the FICO models are structured that me, if you are curious.   It has to do purely with the limited nature of the data that have been available on the credit bureaus.

It's also true that if if a person has $0 in installment debt that also involves a penalty -- for FICO 8 and also (we think) the Experian mortgage score (that model was made in 1998).  A number of other models do not have a $0 installment debt penalty (though I have not seen a clear answer about FICO 9).  The installment debt penalty goes away if you have at least a few dollars in open installment debt.

PS.  I mention that the all zero revolving penalty goes away when you are reporting at least a couple dollars on one card.  Just for clarity, that one card ideally needs to be:

     (1) A true credit card (not a charge card or a store card)

     (2) A card in your name (not an AU card)

     (3) A card with a CL of < 34.9k

When any of those things are not true, FICO might exclude the card from its revolving model and then you'll end up with the "all zero" penalty.  If you have at least one card about which all those things are true, and it is reporting a few dollars, then the penalty vanishes.