Hello, I joined the Equifax unlimited score/report a couple months ago. On 7-20, my score was 680. One 7-25, I checked again and it had dropped to 637! No changes in the actual credit report - I printed them both out, and see no difference. No new inquiries, no lates, no NOTHING to account for the drop. What could have possibly happened? I actually have no new negatives for the past almost 2 years, and have been monitoring my score rising since then. Anyone have any ideas? Could it possibly be related to my frequent requesting of my own report through their "unlimited" service, are they perhaps counting them as hard inquiries accidentally? HHEELLPP!! I'm looking to buy a car in the next several months and want the best score possible. Thanks, ~Michele
I had a double digit point drop on both EQ and EX for no apparent reason. Then, a couple of days later, a new collection showed up or was reinserted with no score change. I took it as the score changed first then the items inserted because of backlog or whatever. Seems crazy!! Charlie
Yes, yes - you are both right. I never imagined that this would affect the score to this extent. Is this normal? On ONE of my cards, my balance went from $400 to $1,400 - maxing it out almost. Geez. But a 40 point drop?? Wow. Guess I need to pay off the balances to get the score I need . . . Thanks, ~Michele
It has a big impact. I have 5 revolving triads and they hate it if I carry a balance, any balance on all five. Also you want to keep utilization below 15%. All it means is that you want to pay off your credit cards and wait about 7 weeks before you go for a major loan.
keep this in mind. Only 35% of your score is because of your bad and good stuff on your report. A full 30% of your score has to do with balances on your revolving accounts. Personally I think it is a buncha crap because my 1k card is maxxed so I am losing 30% of those good points but someone could have 50k in credit and 20k in debt and get more points.
Wow, 40 points because of a change it utilization? Pay it down! And to think how much higher my scores could be if I weren't utilizing the heck out of my cards.
happened to me 2 new accounts in May, AU on one, and new cc on the second. Both are 55% of limit. they are going to get paid down quick. I know part of decrease in score is due to inquiries and newness of accounts,, but I think the utilization is what contributed mot,,, BTW, on the earlier score, did you have anything in a disputed status? that would have temporarily kicked your score up, as Equifax doesn't utilize the item if it is in dispute, which I believe is different from TU and Experian disputes and scoring....
Interesting. I believe that TU does not count items in despite either. I say this because I have one item that I disputed that is now in perpetual dispute and when I pull my score from E-loan the number of derogatory accounts is one short. As to opening new accounts the first thing to consider is that a revolving triad will be to new to rate for several weeks. So until it makes it to a R1 status, a new account can't help your score. The next thing is that they look at how many accounts you have opened in the last three years. The lower the better but if this number is over 6, your score will take a whack. Another factor is the average age of all accounts. When you open a new account you bring down the average age of all accounts. This phenomenon could, in some cases, explain why people who get a negative account removed find that it does not help their score that much. For example lets say that you had a revolving triad that was opened in 1982 and it was active until you had a R9 charge off on the account in 1998. Now if you get this account removed you are eliminating a 4 year old negative account that was 20 years old. This could substantially drop your average age of all accounts because they look at when the account was originally opened. From what I can tell the magic number is a minimum of five years.
