Why Is Experian So Hard To Please???

Anonymous · ‎02-25-2019

Hi Yall,

Ok I need to vent about Experian...

I've seen on other posts on the forum about the points being so slow to climb up with them. I just received alerts from TransUnion and Equifax that they went up 2 and 3 points for paying down a balance from $179.00 to $19.00. Very small points difference but hey, I'll take every point I can get. I got an alert from Experian which says "UTILIZATION PERCENTAGE 13% to 1%. 662 Your score has not changed" Why are they so hard to please? They are my lowest score and I'm struggling to bring them up. They are the only ones that aren't reporting a Lowes Card that I am an auth. user for (17k limit and has been open for 10 yrs) Ive called them over and over to try to get fixed to no avail. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

DapprD · ‎02-25-2019

That is so weird, Experian has been the best to me, Equifax on the other hand has been a pain in my side and is my lowest score.

TU is in the middle for me.

Starting Score: 567
Current Score: 739
Goal Score: 760

Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge

Anonymous · ‎02-25-2019

OP, by definition 1/3 of the population will agree with you while 2/3 disagree with you. For every one person that says a certain bureau is the "best" or "worst" for them, there are 2 people (1 for each of the other 2) that feel differently.

As to why your TU/EQ scores moved and your EX score didn't, it's possible that your reported balances are not the same across all 3B. In fact, it sounds like they definitely aren't since you stated that your Lowe's account appears on TU/EQ, but not EX. There could be other variations as well that you aren't taking into consideration. That being said, dollars do not impact FICO scores when it comes to utilization, percentages do. Your TU/EQ reported balance paydowns caused you to cross a percentage threshold which could have caused the minor score increase. If you didn't see the same score increase on EX, perhaps the same threshold wasn't crossed.

Anonymous · ‎02-25-2019

EX is the stubborn one for me too. While my TU and EQ change monthly with the same info on them, EX gets stuck at the same score for months at a time. It baffles me. I am at that same 662.

Andypanda · ‎02-25-2019

Ex is my midlle score because i have 3 hp on it, as opposed to 2 on tu snd 5 on eq. Everything else is the same.

Anonymous · ‎02-25-2019

@Andypanda wrote:
Ex is my midlle score because i have 3 hp on it, as opposed to 2 on tu snd 5 on eq. Everything else is the same.

That may seem to make sense on the surface, but won't always be the case. What you said above may suggest that an equal number of inquiries (say) 3 or 5 across all 3 bureaus would result in 3 identical or near-identical scores, where many people have reported 15-25 point variances between their top and bottom scores with identical bureau data. There have been times where my highest score came on the bureau where I had the most inquiries.

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
OP, by definition 1/3 of the population will agree with you while 2/3 disagree with you. For every one person that says a certain bureau is the "best" or "worst" for them, there are 2 people (1 for each of the other 2) that feel differently.

As to why your TU/EQ scores moved and your EX score didn't, it's possible that your reported balances are not the same across all 3B. In fact, it sounds like they definitely aren't since you stated that your Lowe's account appears on TU/EQ, but not EX. There could be other variations as well that you aren't taking into consideration. That being said, dollars do not impact FICO scores when it comes to utilization, percentages do. Your TU/EQ reported balance paydowns caused you to cross a percentage threshold which could have caused the minor score increase. If you didn't see the same score increase on EX, perhaps the same threshold wasn't crossed.

Hi BrutalBodyShots,

I check my reports constantly and the balances are similar across the board except for the Lowes when it comes to CC's. Another difference on the reporting is a bankruptcy that I already had removed from Transunion and am waiting for the 3 and 1 month mark to request for the other two to be removed. Experian has 3 inquiries, Equifax 2, and Transunion only 1. The card that I paid down was another CC that reports to the 3b. Can you explain about the thresholds? I'm a little new to this forum so I may not have grasped the concept yet. Thanks!

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2019

The basic thresholds that we commonly talk about on the forum are 8.9%, 28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9% and 88.9%. Ideally, you want to keep your overall (aggregate) utilization below 8.9%. When it comes to individual cards, keeping all of them below 28.9% is usually recommended, where some people report a small penalty taking one card just above 28.9% but a few have actually seen a tiny penalty taking a single card above 8.9%. Aggregate utilization matters most, where crossing an aggregate utilization threshold will impact score much more than a single card... for example an aggregate utilization threshold on a certain profile may be "worth" 15-20 points, where an individual card crossing a threshold may be "worth" 3-5 for example.

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
The basic thresholds that we commonly talk about on the forum are 8.9%, 28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9% and 88.9%. Ideally, you want to keep your overall (aggregate) utilization below 8.9%. When it comes to individual cards, keeping all of them below 28.9% is usually recommended, where some people report a small penalty taking one card just above 28.9% but a few have actually seen a tiny penalty taking a single card above 8.9%. Aggregate utilization matters most, where crossing an aggregate utilization threshold will impact score much more than a single card... for example an aggregate utilization threshold on a certain profile may be "worth" 15-20 points, where an individual card crossing a threshold may be "worth" 3-5 for example.

Gotcha... Thanks for the explanation.

Rogue46 · ‎02-26-2019

My scores are near yours and also have a slow time with Experian. I recently had Equifax shoot up 6 points and TU 2 points but Experian no change.. In my case Experian doesn't list a few of my older accounts that are closed for some reason while the other two do. I'm guessing this is why my scores are the way they are.