My FICO score just dropped 48 points because...

[Kaido]

...because Cingular Wireless did a credit inquiry (I just switched from Verizon to AT&T). That blows my mind...will it bounce back up again next month? Sheesh...

 

[Beev]

Seriously? They just checked it and that dropped it? What a wacky system...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Sraaz
Seriously? They just checked it and that dropped it? What a wacky system...

Yup, that's the only change to my credit I've seen. I have the MyFico score watch thing that alerts you any time there's a change to your credit and this is the first time it's gone off in awhile

 

[Queasy]

How many other credit inquiries do you have on your credit report? It will bounce back up when inquiries clear after about 12 months. Unless of course you do something else positive/negative to your credit report before then.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Having read a lot about credit scores and what exactly affects it, I've come to the conclusions that it is a big game that the financial sector put together to make sure the most people possible will have less than perfect credit. They say to have open credit accounts to help your score, but, if you have a $20K limit on a card, and spend say $18K and pay it off that month, it will still show as a negative hit since you came close to maxing the card out. Doesn't matter that you pay it in full every month.
You have the same card and don't charge enough on it every month and it looks bad because you're not utilizing your credit "effectively".

Guess what, if you want your credit to be perfect you're going to need to do a lot of research and learn how to play the game, since that is all it really is.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Having read a lot about credit scores and what exactly affects it, I've come to the conclusions that it is a big game that the financial sector put together to make sure the most people possible will have less than perfect credit. They say to have open credit accounts to help your score, but, if you have a $20K limit on a card, and spend say $18K and pay it off that month, it will still show as a negative hit since you came close to maxing the card out. Doesn't matter that you pay it in full every month.
You have the same card and don't charge enough on it every month and it looks bad because you're not utilizing your credit "effectively".

Guess what, if you want your credit to be perfect you're going to need to do a lot of research and learn how to play the game, since that is all it really is.

ok thanks?

 

[shocksyde]

There is NO WAY an inquiry caused a 50 point drop. You're missing something. What's your overall revolving credit utilization?

Edit: Oh, and did you get your score from myfico.com? If not, it's fake.

 

[Mxylplyx]

The whole building credit game is so overrated. I bought a house when I was 22 with hardly any credit history, and I had no problem. Why kids are taught these days that you need to spend your early life impressing the credit bureaus so you can get access to enough credit to fuck your life up is beyond me. Seems part of growing up these days is getting over your head in your twenties, and spending your thirties trying to dig out of the hole you got yourself in.

 

[Safeway]

I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

 

[shocksyde]

Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

They do, but never more than a few points.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: shocksyde

Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

They do, but never more than a few points.

Yeah, +- 10 points is about normal....50 is not.

 

[stag3]

actually the last 3 times i've applied for and gotten new credit cards, my fico dropped close to 40 pts each time
and gained it all back the next month, weird?

 

[weeber]

Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

Oh, they affect it. I just bought my house and did some shopping around to see where I should get my mortgage. The first place I looked gave me all three of my scores (all were higher than 780). I finally settled on getting my mortgage from this third place and when they gave me my score I was down to numbers that were over 750. The only thing that lowered my score was the credit checks that the three lenders did over a short period of time.

My chosen lender also had me write a lender to explain the recent credit checks that were on my report. The cliffs of the letter I sent was: Duh, I'm buying a house.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: stag3
actually the last 3 times i've applied for and gotten new credit cards, my fico dropped close to 40 pts each time
and gained it all back the next month, weird?

Well that's a relief! I haven't done anything else with my credit...I'm very careful about it. I got an email notification yesterday that it had dropped, looked into it and it was just the cell phone credit inquiry...weird huh.

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
The whole building credit game is so overrated. I bought a house when I was 22 with hardly any credit history, and I had no problem. Why kids are taught these days that you need to spend your early life impressing the credit bureaus so you can get access to enough credit to fuck your life up is beyond me. Seems part of growing up these days is getting over your head in your twenties, and spending your thirties trying to dig out of the hole you got yourself in.

Well said. :thumbsup:

 

[slsmnaz]

Originally posted by: weeber

Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

Oh, they affect it. I just bought my house and did some shopping around to see where I should get my mortgage. The first place I looked gave me all three of my scores (all were higher than 780). I finally settled on getting my mortgage from this third place and when they gave me my score I was down to numbers that were over 750. The only thing that lowered my score was the credit checks that the three lenders did over a short period of time.

My chosen lender also had me write a lender to explain the recent credit checks that were on my report. The cliffs of the letter I sent was: Duh, I'm buying a house.

I thought those were called something like a "soft" check and didn't affect your scores. I remember shopping for a car and saw a few different checks but the score never changed since they were all for 1 item. It was a while ago so I could be mistaken.

 

[daggerr]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin

Originally posted by: shocksyde

Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.

They do, but never more than a few points.

Yeah, +- 10 points is about normal....50 is not.

Yeah, that's a fair approximation, though it's a bit more complicated than that. For even more details about how the FICO score is calculated and how much a "hard pull" of your credit report affects your FICO score, you can check out the June 30th posting at uThunk: Money-Saving Decisions Made Easy.

 

[bwatson283]

there is something else missing from the picture. If it was just ATT only, in the past few months, it wont affect the score at all. If you inquire on your own credit, it doesn't affect you at all, it is considered a "soft pull", but anyone other than yourself it will affect your score. I monitor my credit through all 3 credit bureaus constantly, and my score arnt taking hits. You must have applied for credit cards and jobs also