Will my score drop if I leave a balance on 2 cards

[Anonymous]

Some other commenters have pointed this out, but it is really important to remember two things:

(1)  If you do lose any scoring points on any of the FICO models, it will be a very small number of points.

(2)  Whatever points you do lose is a completely temporary loss.  You will get all those points back by having exactly one card reporting a balance.

PS.  Do read the comments of BBS closely.  He's observing that FICO likes it best when your total number of open accounts (which includes both loans and cards) with a positive balance is small.  You already have several open accounts reporting a positive balance (the loans) even when you have exactly one card reporting a balnce.  Therefore whatever penalty you might be assessed is already likely present in yours scores.

The best way to know for sure is to experiment, as TT and others have also observed.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

(1)  If you do lose any scoring points on any of the FICO models, it will be a very small number of points.

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If you  look at  Thomas_Thumb's  Equifax chart, you'll see that  one can lose a lot more than just a few points on Eq Fico 04.  I applied for a DCU Heloc  last year, and since I knew  they are using Eq Fico 04, I decreased the ratio of cards  reporting  a balance from 3/4 to 1/4.  My Eq Fico 04 increased from 770 to 800.  (All those numbers are approximate and based on  memory)

So I recommend implementing AZEO   if you know that your mortage scores are being pulled for an application.  But any othertime, I think, it is a waste of  time and money.

Edit:  My post was meant as a general comment on  the effect of AZEO.  For the case of the OP,  I agree with CCiD and the others, that reporting  one more credit card with balance should only of  small effect on the Fico scores.

[Revelate]

Hah, just saying DCU underwrites their HELOC at something like 675 or thereabouts; your 770 was so far above the line it wouldn't have mattered .

I should go redo my old experiments but not really in a place where I have much time for that, for me when talking FICO 8 it was always  just reolvers with balance rather than total accounts but there were some inconsistencies seen with FICO 04 on that where either 2 revolvers was an issue or it took my installment balances too.

Either way if you want to optimize FICO, AZEO is where it's at, works for everyone, even if it's not admittedly needed by everyone (i.e. with the number of revolvers I have I can be sloppy and stupid with random balances and it doesn't make a difference, but when I need my score to count, I still do AZEO just in case).

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

Hah, just saying DCU underwrites their HELOC at something like 675 or thereabouts; your 770 was so far above the line it wouldn't have mattered .

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You are right, of course. I just wanted my application to look as good as possible.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

(1)  If you do lose any scoring points on any of the FICO models, it will be a very small number of points.

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If you  look at  Thomas_Thumb's  Equifax chart, you'll see that  one can lose a lot more than just a few points on Eq Fico 04.

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I'd have to ask TT to comment further, but I think the huge dip on EQ FICO 04 was associated with going from 1/6 revolvers to 6/6.  (And bear in mind that he only had one loan I think.)

Our OP in contrast was asking what would happen if he went from 9 open accounts with a balance (8 loans and 1 revolver) to 10 accounts (8 loans and 2 revolvers).  My guess is that his EQ FICO 04 dip would be fairly small.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

(1)  If you do lose any scoring points on any of the FICO models, it will be a very small number of points.

---

If you  look at  Thomas_Thumb's  Equifax chart, you'll see that  one can lose a lot more than just a few points on Eq Fico 04.

---

I'd have to ask TT to comment further, but I think the huge dip on EQ FICO 04 was associated with going from 1/6 revolvers to 6/6.  (And bear in mind that he only had one loan I think.)

Our OP in contrast was asking what would happen if he went from 9 open accounts with a balance (8 loans and 1 revolver) to 10 accounts (8 loans and 2 revolvers).  My guess is that his EQ FICO 04 dip would be fairly small.

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Sorry, I only was commenting in general and not  towards the specific situation of the OP.  I agree the dip in the OP's Fico 04 should be small. 

But I just looked at  a table of Fico reasoning codes:   I found the "too many accounts with a balance" for all the mortage scores.  But  for  Eq Fico 04  I also found "Number of bank/national revolving accounts with a balance".  That might explain the different effect AZEO has on    Eq than on  TU/Ex.  It could also mean that   going from 1 to 2 (out of 3)  credit accounts with a balance could  effect Eq Fico 04 more than we think.

[Anonymous]

@Thomas_Thumb
Yes, I’m talking about an Authorized User not Auto. 🧐

[Anonymous]

@CreditGuyInDixie
So basically they count my loans against me too? And not just my credit cards. So I really have 6 out of 8 accounts reporting. Either way it’s still not one account. This is tricky all seem like a credit game to me. But when my score comes back again I will update you all!

[Thomas_Thumb]

Hard to say what the dip in the OP's EQ Fico 04 score will be without knowing all details on the file.

CGID is correct in that I have one open mortgage loan and six open cards with one being an AU card. The low point dip was with 6 of 6 cards reporting balances. I've been at 6 of 6 reporting many times but, only twice when pulling an EQ 04 mortgage score. Results were repeatable 764 once and 765 the other time. The fewest CC accounts reporting for mortgage pulls has been 2 of 6 (includes the AU card which always reports).

The below old chart is for one INQ on EQ and zero on TU/EX. My TU Fico scores, particularly mortgage version has become more sensitive to # cards reporting and card utilization since an HP last October.

[Shooting-For-800]

any small changes usually create small changes in your score.

these changes are often corrected within a month or two as your file changes.

GL!