FICO Scores

[Tdbo]

I ask this question not because I have an issue with my FICO score. I ask out of morbid curiosity.

I have never had an issue obtaining credit at favorable rates. Generally, when I have taken a mortgage or a loan, I always have been told that I have excellent credit.

When I purchased the 2012 Accord in my signature new in December 2012, I was told at that time that I had a FICO of 798. After purchasing the car, it went to 808. After a few months, it jumped to 811 and has fluctuated between 811-817 until September, depending on the month,

In September, it jumped to 832. In October it rose two more points to 834. In November, it jumped to 844.

I have a number of credit cards, that I use for rewards and convenience but always pay in full at the end of the month, with the exception of 2 cards that I purchased new appliances and furniture on a SAC deal (< $1500.) House is paid off with the exception of a 25K HELOC, that has a $1400. balance in it from the wife's new knee replacements.

I'm sure that some of the jump is due to the fact that the final payment on the Accord is due on December 2, completing that loan. I understand the basic factors that influence credit scores (ratios, paying bills on time, etc.) However, is it normal for a FICO score to jump that much in as short a period of time?

Thanks for any info that anyone can provide.

 

[Kuato]

Yep, fluctuation is normal. Mine changes monthly also. Depends on balances, payments, debt ratios etc as you know. So if you just today charged a bit ticket item, and they calculated your score, it would be different than if they'd calculated it yesterday, just before your big purchase.

 

[MarcS]

A 20 point fluctuaion month-to-month is completely normal.

 

[Wolf359]

Fico scores are not all the same. They use different scoring models. The ones the banks use for mortgages are on a different scoring system than those "fako" scores you get. Typically their top scores are in the 839-850 range so it's doubtful you have a perfect score. More likely it's a vantage score which goes up to 950. Read your score carefully and see what scoring model it's using.

If you really want to know more, check out myfico.com.

 

[Donald]

I assume each FICO score you refer to is the same FICO model? There are many, the bank uses one for a mortgage, another for a car and another for a credit card. And more. All FICO. And the useless non FICO ones like Credit Karma provides.

I would keep good credit rather than shoot for a super high FICO score. Keeping a small credit card balance is better for a FICO score than paying it off. But who cares if you feel better paying it off.

Even if you pay off a credit card each month what matters is the balance when the credit card company reports it to the credit reporting agencies. Usually a couple of days after the statement is produced. If you happened to buy a lot of appliances and maxed out credit card just before the statement was produced, you could get a negative mark even if you pay in full when due.

 

[fdcg27]

Why do you even care?
If you know that you have very good credit, then why even worry about it?
You already know that with no FICO score to begin with.
Only those with really low credit scores need to worry about them.
Anyone in the average or above range has no worries.

 

[blupupher]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Why do you even care?
If you know that you have very good credit, then why even worry about it?
You already know that with no FICO score to begin with.
Only those with really low credit scores need to worry about them.
Anyone in the average or above range has no worries.

LOL, so true.
My credit card (2 of them actually) give me a "free" FICO score, and both are quite high (and about the same). Don't really care since I am not buying anything big anytime soon anyway.

 

[Vikas]

This is HumbleBrag thread! Mine fluctuates between 955 and 970

 

[fdcg27]

The first thing that we financed in many years was our '12 Accord and only because Honda was offering free money (actually .9%). My original plan was just to write a check for the car. I was shocked at how high my credit score was since we hadn't had any sort of debt in many years. We may sometimes have high credit card bills due to travel and the like, but we pay these and never carry a balance.
Stable employment plus married plus paying your bills on time results in a high credit score.
It's apparently just that easy.

 

[OneEyeJack]

In about 2008 my score was 8xx. That same year I was diagnosed with cancer and lost most of my retirement that was invested with Lehman Brothers Bank that went down the toilet.

Since then my wife and I have not had a credit card and have struggled to pay off debts caused by me being defective and needing a lot of medical care. We took another hit when Obamacare became law, a big hit. We are now out of debt having gone back and paid everyone off even though there were some debts wiped out by bankruptcy. We are now living a cash and carry life style.

My FICO score is now "zero". FICO evidently rewards good behavior as defined by the financial industry to suit their needs when using credit and may not reflect you ability or intention to take on debt and pay it back exactly as required. It appears that a good score is a reward like when you give your dog a treat for doing a trick.

It was beyond tough to become debt free and it's difficult to explain how good it felt to get there. We will never use a credit card again. We now have a debit only card for convenience with a small account that if hacked will cause no great hardship.

I now see FICO scores as a training device for consumers and a decision tool for retailers to get them to quickly commit to their end of a transaction. All this is good for the financial industry and was a very good idea.

 

[Wolf359]

Technically the lowest score is a 300, but all the bad stuff tends to drop out after 7-10 years. I do run credit checks so I see them all the time. Bankruptcy is a big hit, but only if it was in the last year or two. I don't think I've ever seen a 300, I've seen some that were in the 400's though, basically pages and page of bills that were never paid, lots 30, 60, 90 day late payments. If you miss a couple it's still in the 600's to low 700's depending on how long ago they were.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Why do you even care?
If you know that you have very good credit, then why even worry about it?
You already know that with no FICO score to begin with.
Only those with really low credit scores need to worry about them.
Anyone in the average or above range has no worries.


Like I said in the original post, I'm not worried.
I have excellent credit. Like I said, I could not believe that there was that high a jump in my FICO score over a three month period, when I had never seen that radical of a jump before, even after paying off a house.
A FICO score is merely a picture in time that can change daily. I was just somewhat amazed by the variation of change, even though the number is going in the right direction.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: blupupher
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Why do you even care?
If you know that you have very good credit, then why even worry about it?
You already know that with no FICO score to begin with.
Only those with really low credit scores need to worry about them.
Anyone in the average or above range has no worries.

LOL, so true.
My credit card (2 of them actually) give me a "free" FICO score, and both are quite high (and about the same). Don't really care since I am not buying anything big anytime soon anyway.



Same here on having the two cards that give FICO scores and both agree.
Since I made the final payment on the car, I hope to be done for another year or so until I have to replace the 2006.
Doesn't make any difference to me either, other than being curious.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
In about 2008 my score was 8xx. That same year I was diagnosed with cancer and lost most of my retirement that was invested with Lehman Brothers Bank that went down the toilet.

Since then my wife and I have not had a credit card and have struggled to pay off debts caused by me being defective and needing a lot of medical care. We took another hit when Obamacare became law, a big hit. We are now out of debt having gone back and paid everyone off even though there were some debts wiped out by bankruptcy. We are now living a cash and carry life style.

My FICO score is now "zero". FICO evidently rewards good behavior as defined by the financial industry to suit their needs when using credit and may not reflect you ability or intention to take on debt and pay it back exactly as required. It appears that a good score is a reward like when you give your dog a treat for doing a trick.

It was beyond tough to become debt free and it's difficult to explain how good it felt to get there. We will never use a credit card again. We now have a debit only card for convenience with a small account that if hacked will cause no great hardship.

I now see FICO scores as a training device for consumers and a decision tool for retailers to get them to quickly commit to their end of a transaction. All this is good for the financial industry and was a very good idea.




I knew someone with about $7m in the bank. His grown son who worked at Lehman convinced him to invest $1m in Lehman and I think he lost it all.

But it seems you did not heed the wise advice not to put more than 10% of your money in any one investment especially the company you work for.

 

[OneEyeJack]

The problem was that I followed the advice of "experts", people in the field with all the correct credentials. I was busy working. Never again will anyone touch my money. What wiped me out was an executive order signed by our president that preempted the bankruptcy laws. The institutional investors got their money out of Lehman Brothers and the individual investors got next to nothing. My first settlement letter before the executive order showed me getting 94% of my money. Our government is not just corrupt, it's a money laundering scheme. We can only hope a change is in the wind.

 

[xfactor9]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Why do you even care?


Because this is BITOG, where people are OCD about whether inflating their tires to 33 PSI instead of 32 PSI would result in a 0.01 MPG increase