Why'd my Dad's FICO score drop so much? Here's the situation......

[Anonymous]

So, my Dad had a TransUnion credit score of 788 as of April 14, 2008.  In October 2008, he mailed in his Discover Card payment late, as he was traveling.  His fault.  This late payment was reflected in November's TU report/score.  As a result, Amex called to inform him that b/c of a negative event on his credit report, they were reducing his credit limit from $6k to $3k.  This late payment and the reduction in his available credit were 2 negatives and  as of December 14, 2008, his score was reduced to 733.  A sharp 55 point decline.  Harsh, yes, I think so. 

That said, however, we look tonight (March 28, 2009) and his score is down to 670, with no additional negative remarks.  No late payments, no additional requests for credit, no credit inquireies, no cancelled cards and no other reduced balances.  In fact, his total credit card balance is $1,500, with total available credit or more than $30k.  He does not have any additional debt (no mortgage, car payment....nothing).

I'm perplexed, as I can see the decline from 788 to 733 after making a late payment (his first negative event in more than 5 years, mind you!) and having Amex reduce the credit line.  But for the score to drop 118 points baffles me, to me honest.

Any help/insight is appreciated.

Michael in NYC

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

You wrote "TransUnion credit score." Were the two higher TU scores FICO scores, pulled from here, or were they FAKO scores pulled from the TU site? If they came from the TU site, they weren't FICO's, so you can't do a good before and after with them.

I'm assuming that the most recent score pull came from here. If so, what were the negatives and the positives listed on screen 2?

[marty56]

Check total % CC util and util on each card.It is possible that a CLD left one or more cards maxed out even though your total % util was low.

Also check a balance being reported on a CC that hadnt showed one for awhile.  I lost 25 points on TU once for $32 being reported on a CC that hadn't reported a balance for 3 months.  The CL on the card was 10k.

[Anonymous]

Hello and thanks for your warm welcome to the forum and your feedback.  It was his FICO score obtained from another site (given myfico no longer provides the Experian FICO score) we used one that offered the three FICO Scores at one for free. That said, I'm not sure I can answer your question about "what were the negatives and the positives listed on screen 2?"

On page 2 of that site, his only negative against this account was this 1 late payment.

Any other thoughts/suggestion would truly be helpful.

Michael

[Anonymous]

I will be interested in the website address that you got all your CRA's FICO scores. You probably got FAKO scores as there is no way you can get an EX FICO score except from a lender.

[Anonymous]

We received my Dad's three scores from creditdiagnosis.com.  I'm assuming they are FICO scores (yes, I know what happens when one assumes ......could they be FAKO scores (never heard of they til now). I've received my three Scores in the past from myfico.com.  But decided against using this site again, because we couldn't get all three FICO scores for free.

Thanks.

Michael

[haulingthescoreup]

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CreditEducatorNYC wrote:

We received my Dad's three scores from creditdiagnosis.com.  I'm assuming they are FICO scores (yes, I know what happens when one assumes ......could they be FAKO scores (never heard of they til now). I've received my three Scores in the past from myfico.com.  But decided against using this site again, because we couldn't get all three FICO scores for free.

Thanks.

Michael

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If it doesn't specifically say "FICO", it's just a credit score. It's like the difference between saying Kleenex and facial tissues.

It's a very cleverly designed site --it keeps referring to FICO scores, but it never actually says that they provide FICO scores. They just keep saying "credit scores." I got in far enough to see that the reports (which are fine) are identical to TrueCredit reports, and it does say that it's a TransUnion service, so I'm guessing that the scores are TransRisk scores. I decided not to pull the trigger on the free (ha) offer, because I never manage to cancel out in time to avoid the $30/ month charge.

Monitoring the reports is really the important thing, but we're all curious about our scores. In this case, I'm quite sure that these are FAKO's, though, and unfortunately FAKO's just don't track FICO's in any predictable way. And since we don't know much about FAKO score formulas, there's no telling why his score dropped so.

I do know that when I had a 30-day late 2 years ago, I lost 50 points (on FICO scores), and I was only starting from around 650. Generally, the better the score, the harsher the score penalty for baddies.

Have you read around here enough to learn about GW? He needs to GW Discover to death to ask that they forgive the late payment and remove it from his reports.

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

[Anonymous]

Great suggestions.....thanks!!  I'll have a proper read of the docs/links you suggested.  Can you confirm if any online service offers all three (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) FICO scores for free 1x annually? 

Also, if all banks/credit providers use the FICO score as a measure of one's ability to repay, of what use are the FAKO and other 'credit scores'?  

Michael

[haulingthescoreup]

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CreditEducatorNYC wrote:

Great suggestions.....thanks!!  I'll have a proper read of the docs/links you suggested.  Can you confirm if any online service offers all three (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) FICO scores for free 1x annually? 

Also, if all banks/credit providers use the FICO score as a measure of one's ability to repay, of what use are the FAKO and other 'credit scores'?  

Michael

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There are NO services that offer all three FICO scores now, and there never were any free sources for FICO scores. As of February 13, consumers can't buy their Experian FICO score.

FAKO scores are a sweet way for their issuers to make some money. I do like services that offer daily report monitoring, and I'm still mourning TrueCredit's decision to only allow EQ and EX report updates once a month, while TU can be updated daily. I'm not thrilled with the replacement I have (CreditSecure.) It's important, OK, well it's useful when actively cleaning up and re-building your credit to access your reports frequently. It's how you find out when your accounts update, among other things. But you just have to learn to ignore the scores and the "advice" which comes with them.