All Zero Penalty caused a 45 point drop.

Of all my credit scores, EX8 has always been the most difficult for me to maximize. My new credit cards have not yet been reported, so I only have my older revolvers influencing my scores now. On the 8th, 2 changes occurred in my credit reports; my mortgage balance dropped by $1,133 and the only credit card I use had a zero balance because I have been making more frequent payments. You can see the score change here Moral of the story, always let one revolver post a nonzero balance.

Thanks for sharing the data point. That's a big score drop.

Experian is tough for me too scorewise. One thing going for them is EX8 can go 100% accounts with balance without further score penalty. That is if aggregate and individual utilization are somewhat optimized.

@Credible how many bankcards do you have? how many tradelines do you have? that’s a very severe penalty I’ve never heard of one that high.

Birdman wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 6:28 pm @Credible how many bankcards do you have? how many tradelines do you have? that’s a very severe penalty I’ve never heard of one that high.

It was 2 credit cards before I opened the two Citi credit cards. Otherwise my only other open account is my mortgage. I just looked at it again, and it looks like one of the new Citi credit cards had reported the day before the MyFICO score pull. But the new account also had a reported zero balance. So the score drop is not just because of the all zero but also the new revolver scorecard reassignment at the same time.

Credible wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 7:12 pm

Birdman wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 6:28 pm @Credible how many bankcards do you have? how many tradelines do you have? that’s a very severe penalty I’ve never heard of one that high.

It was 2 credit cards before I opened the two Citi credit cards. Otherwise my only other open account is my mortgage. I just looked at it again, and it looks like one of the new Citi credit cards had reported the day before the MyFICO score pull. But the new account also had a reported zero balance. So the score drop is not just because of the all zero but also the new revolver scorecard reassignment at the same time.

Makes perfect sense now! & congratulations on those new cards!

Good call from @AllZero above regarding EX8 being bulletproof under many circumstances when it comes to AWB, where TU8 and EQ8 definitely are not. I personally have not found EX to be any more difficult to maximize than TU/EQ outside of my inquiries being much more EX weighted. For example scoreable inquiry wise I'm at 4 on EX currently with only 1 on TU and 1 on EQ, so that sort of skews things a bit.

BrutalBodyShots wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 9:46 pm Good call from @AllZero above regarding EX8 being bulletproof under many circumstances when it comes to AWB, where TU8 and EQ8 definitely are not. I personally have not found EX to be any more difficult to maximize than TU/EQ outside of my inquiries being much more EX weighted. For example scoreable inquiry wise I'm at 4 on EX currently with only 1 on TU and 1 on EQ, so that sort of skews things a bit.

I second this. My EX has 3 inquiries vs 1 on TU, and 0 on EQ. The combination of inquiries, new accounts, and a theory involving an installment CO is causing my EX to lag behind the others as my scores rebound from my little spree.

I know several others a couple of months back also posted saying that their inquiries were EX-heavy lately, so it does indeed seem to be a thing that bureaus are going with HPs there at a higher rate for whatever reason.

SoonerSoldier33 wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 3:15 pm

BrutalBodyShots wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 9:46 pm Good call from @AllZero above regarding EX8 being bulletproof under many circumstances when it comes to AWB, where TU8 and EQ8 definitely are not. I personally have not found EX to be any more difficult to maximize than TU/EQ outside of my inquiries being much more EX weighted. For example scoreable inquiry wise I'm at 4 on EX currently with only 1 on TU and 1 on EQ, so that sort of skews things a bit.

I second this. My EX has 3 inquiries vs 1 on TU, and 0 on EQ. The combination of inquiries, new accounts, and a theory involving an installment CO is causing my EX to lag behind the others as my scores rebound from my little spree.

@SoonerSoldier33 remember we now know derogatory accounts & collections are not included in the total debt factor, if experian is to be believed, which it was already my theory, so I take it as some form of confirmation. I mean it makes total sense because: why would you have a PH category scoring factor specifically for ‘amount of money still owed on delinquent accounts or CA items’ if you weren’t going to shift the debt from the amounts owed category scoring factors to the payment history scoring factors. I can’t see the algorithm penalizing you twice for the same thing. I’m sure the penalties in the Payment History category are quite sufficient, considering they hold more weight than any other category. So I think that old installment CO amount will be held against you by scorecard assignment and by that specific scoring factor in that category alone in the newer scores; on the old scores, we don’t know as much, but seems the penalty would only be tied to that category after two years & by both before two years, imho.