"Substantial Installment Loan Repayment"

[SouthJamaica]

I have 6 open installment loans.

Today my EX FICO 8 increased by 7 points for non-obvious reasons.

I found 2 possible clues to the reason, one of which is the addition of a positive reason code:  "Substantial Installment Loan Repayment"

It says I've paid off 74% of my non-mortgage installment loans. The actual reported installment utilization is 25.769%. So maybe 25% is some kind of installment loan threshold in FICO 8.

The problem, though, is that although that reason code was added, there was no change in the installment loan utilization numbers. The dollar figures have been unchanged for 11 days.

(The other clue was the removal of a negative reason code "Seeking credit", but I was able to find no data in inquiries or in new accounts that would have affected that metric.)

[Anonymous]

I've always been under the impression that positive reason codes do not impact Fico scores, just negative ones.  Have thoughts on this shifted recently?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've always been under the impression that positive reason codes do not impact Fico scores, just negative ones.  Have thoughts on this shifted recently?

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I personally am agnostic on that. Wiser heads than mine have indeed said that, though.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I have 6 open installment loans.

Today my EX FICO 8 increased by 7 points for non-obvious reasons.

Here's a scary thought: What if installment loan aging uses the exact date of each installment account opening?

Code 25 - EX FICO 8
Length of time installment loans have been established

"People who do not frequently open new accounts and have longer credit histories generally pose less risk to lenders. In your case, the age of your oldest installment loan and/or the average age of your installment loan accounts is relatively low."

It could be something like this:

Category: Length of Credit History -> Characteristic: What is the age of installment accounts?

That characteristic has at least 2 Attributes: Oldest and Average

If exact date of opening is used in the algorithm for computing those attribute values, you could see score increases on any day of the month.

[Anonymous]

But you also have the age of the oldest open installment account, and I think each characteristic is a separate factor with the attribute being the answer, so I think you would have 3 characteristics with 3 corresponding attributes, being the lengths.

Far as I know positive ones are meaningless still BBS.

But if seeking credit disappeared, you would think an inquiry fell off? Is there an inquiry from a year ago that could’ve become unscoreable SJ?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I have 6 open installment loans.

Today my EX FICO 8 increased by 7 points for non-obvious reasons.

Here's a scary thought: What if installment loan aging uses the exact date of each installment account opening?

Code 25 - EX FICO 8
Length of time installment loans have been established

"People who do not frequently open new accounts and have longer credit histories generally pose less risk to lenders. In your case, the age of your oldest installment loan and/or the average age of your installment loan accounts is relatively low."

It could be something like this:

Category: Length of Credit History -> Characteristic: What is the age of installment accounts?

That characteristic has at least 2 Attributes: Oldest and Average

If exact date of opening is used in the algorithm for computing those attribute values, you could see score increases on any day of the month.

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Except that I haven't received any reason code like that.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
But you also have the age of the oldest open installment account, and I think each characteristic is a separate factor with the attribute being the answer, so I think you would have 3 characteristics with 3 corresponding attributes, being the lengths.

Far as I know positive ones are meaningless still BBS.

But if seeking credit disappeared, you would think an inquiry fell off? Is there an inquiry from a year ago that could’ve become unscoreable SJ?

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No of course not. That was one of the first things I looked for.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But if seeking credit disappeared, you would think an inquiry fell off? Is there an inquiry from a year ago that could’ve become unscoreable SJ?

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Even if one fell off, he'd still have a fresh one just over a month old.  That would lead me to believe that the element of time may not be the only factor, but also the sheer number of scoreable inquiries.

I sort of feel like the discussion on this becomes less meaningful though as SJ has confirmed that the number of reason codes provided by EX isn't consistent.  If they are just going to go away / appear at will seemingly for no reason it kind of creates false positives and sends us on wild goose chase discussions that may not even have an answer.

[Anonymous]

I’ve never seen them randomly appear and disappear.

And if you already have 4 negative reason codes, if there’s a fifth or sixth it could be hidden and you would not see it unless you get rid of the more highly ranked ones, SJ.

Could you please give us all 4 before and after negative reason codes, SJ?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

But if seeking credit disappeared, you would think an inquiry fell off? Is there an inquiry from a year ago that could’ve become unscoreable SJ?

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Even if one fell off, he'd still have a fresh one just over a month old.  That would lead me to believe that the element of time may not be the only factor, but also the sheer number of scoreable inquiries.

I sort of feel like the discussion on this becomes less meaningful though as SJ has confirmed that the number of reason codes provided by EX isn't consistent.  If they are just going to go away / appear at will seemingly for no reason it kind of creates false positives and sends us on wild goose chase discussions that may not even have an answer.

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@Anonymous For S&G, let's say he had four inquiries and went down to three, which made the total point loss for inquiries less than his fourth negative reason code placing it in the fifth?