"New Credit Requests" scoring is not fair!!

Anonymous · ‎08-25-2009

I recently moved to another state. I had to apply to three new utility companies - electric, phone and gas. They all ran a credit report to provide service. The score went down 20 points on one report and 18 on the other. The explanation was that I applied for new credit. Technically, yes, I appllied for credit from a company. But it is not the same as a credit card or auto loan. Compounding the problem, after moving, 6 weeks later I was laid off and now will move back to my original state. The same will happen all over again.

My suggestion is for FICO scoring to lump all requests for utilities during a move into one request, so that it does not so adversely affect a score.

marty56 · ‎08-26-2009

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to add insult to injury but if you get cable and you open a new bank account, you most likely will get INQs there as well. In 1 year, those INQs wont hurt anymore and since they wont report to the CRas (unless it goes into collections that is), you will be fine by then.

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2009

Welcome to the forums!

It is a fact of life and it is legal. None of us like it. The only way this might change is via legislation - so write your congressman. On the other hand you can't pull a CBR without a permitted purpose (PP) and each of these parties has one. C'est la vie!

MattH · ‎08-27-2009

You are confusing morality with credit scoring: they work entirely off statistical models, so anything that is correlated with higher rates of default brings down the score whether or not that seems fair. Many things in life are not fair, they are what they are.

TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
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Anonymous · ‎08-27-2009

It's weird to think that opening a bank account makes you (slightly) more likely to default on debt. Maybe those INQs should be counted differently.

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2009

well, i wrote the original post. I cannot understand the philosophy behind fico scoring of these requests. I would note that FICO looks at the applications for a new car loan as one request, as that is what it says here on the web site. If i go to Ford, GM and Toyota within a couple of days, the web site says they treat that as one inquiry. that seems fair and reasonable.

I have had e mail from someone who was sent by his company for four months to Atlanta. He moved into a short term housing and i guess the rule was that the renter had to get his own utility. So the power company, gas company and water all ran credit reports and now he is in the same conditon. His score went down 28 points just because he took a temp job out of town. I think this is absurd and I think it is something that is not right.