Why is my EX Score Barely Moving?

[Anonymous]

Greetings. My credit is currently recovering from a dip due to some student loan payments. The payments have been on time since May (Score was above 700 before the dip) and increased from ~570 to exactly 635 by Mid-September. After that, it stopped moving entirely. The EQ and TU scores kept going up (EQ now 672), but the EX score stayed stagnant for 2.5 months. It finally went up again towards the end of November... by 2 points - so now it's 637, but still far behind the other two scores. That is the Fico 8 score trend. The strange thing is that my EX Fico 9 score has been going up just fine - it went up 10 points in November, and is now almost 700. Since April, I've had no late payments, my credit utilization sits at 4% or lower across 6 cards with 4/6 cards reporting 0 balances each month, and just one inquiry (for a car loan) that appeared on all three reports. I pay into 12 accounts total per month and my AAoA is 2 years 6 months. There is one extra, duplicate inquiry from my car loan on my EX report, but that has been resolved and should disappear soon. 

Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal? If there is anything I could do to cause more movement in the score? I could reduce my credit utilization down to 1% or lower if I thought it would help, but I don't think it would... unless I'm wrong about that. It's not pressing now as I don't have plans to apply for any credit anytime soon, but I am curious if there is anything I could do besides wait and watch. 

[expatCanuck]

Sounds like all is 'normal'.  Slight (and not-so-slight) differences between bureau data and variations in their algorithms often result in slightly different scores.  As long as no data is clearly wrong, I'd give the scores a month or two to update.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! Guess it's just a waiting game for now 

[Thomas_Thumb]

That dirty file glass ceiling sure can be frustrating at times. Nonetheless, I've seen quite a few posters optimize their credit file in other areas. Then, when the last major derog ages off or gets removed, score pops 60 to 100 points over night .

[Anonymous]

Aw gosh really? So it'll be 7 years before that happens? :/ 

[Anonymous]

If you don't get them removed early, yes, 7 years is standard.

What is your utilization currently at.  You say that you could take it to 1%, but don't think it would help.  If you're already below 8.9% utilization reported, I'd agree with you, but not if you're above that.  Are you paying monthly interest, or do you PIF your statement balance(s) every month?

[Anonymous]

My utilization across all six of my revolving accounts (4 credit cards, 2 store cards) is 4%. I use all cards, but pay 4/6 of them down to zero before they report/end of statement date. For the last two, one is my everyday use card, which I pay off almost entirely, but leave a small balance - for example, if the balance is $900, I will pay off $850, and only $50 will appear on the statement. I never let the statement balance carry over to the next statement.  

For the other card, a Samsung store card by TD bank, I have a 0% APR financed purchase on it, and that's the only reason why it has a balance. There is $800 left on the purchase - I can pay that down almost immediately (thus lowering my overall utilization from 4%) but I want to leverage the 0% APR monthly payments for the history. That being said, the remaining balance is 20% of the utilization on that card alone - I heard that keeping it under 30% is fine, but should I decrease it lower? 

[Anonymous]

Having an individual card at 20% utilization when you have 4-6 cards isn't a big deal and with aggregate utilization at 1%-4%, you likely aren't taking a scoring penalty for that individual card.  If you are, it's may be 4 points... insignificant.

[Anonymous]

Yep, figured as much... I guess it really is just a waiting game then. 

[Anonymous]

Go give ol norman a listen, Norman Meade - time is on my side