Out of curiosity, I checked my FICO scores from Amex and Citibank, where I have credit cards. I don't have much debt, but the Amex balance can be high since we average $25K per month on it-all paid every month. No car loans, no student loans, etc.
Amex: 839: "Your FICO® Score considers the number of accounts where you are paying your bills as agreed. In your case this number is too low because you have very few accounts or because you've missed payments recently on some of your accounts." (I haven't missed any payments, ever.)
Citibank: 849: "FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances."
Too many accounts or too few? The only other factor both mentioned was the low average age of the accounts.
amex , citi and discover are fico 8 bank card scores , they are NOT comprehensive fico scores .
in fact they do not even use 850 as a max . they run to 900 as a top score and count other debt very differently from traditional fico scores .
so you cannot compare the score to comprehensive fico scores which max at 850 .
" FICO 8 Bankcard Score doesn’t consider all credit to be equal; this is the main difference between it and your traditional FICO score. The FICO 8 Bankcard Score narrows in on your behavior with credit cards specifically, and rewards or penalizes you accordingly.
First, it’s important to understand that the exact metrics used to create customers’ FICO 8 Bankcard Scores aren’t completely known. FICO hasn’t released this information to the public. However, we do know a few general things about the FICO 8 Bankcard scoring system:
The score range is 250-900. This is broader than the traditional FICO score’s range of 300-850.
Both the base FICO score and the FICO 8 Bankcard Score look at similar credit-related behaviors. However, some factors are weighted more heavily in the FICO 8 Bankcard Score than they are in the conventional FICO score
Becoming an authorized user may not help – People with poor credit sometimes convince a friend or acquaintance with good credit to designate them as an authorized user. This is meant to help improve bad credit faster. But due to some sketchy tactics used by past customers, your FICO 8 Bankcard Score might not be helped as much by gaining authorized user status.
A high utilization ratio hurts more – In the conventional FICO model, your credit utilization ratio accounts for 30% of your score. In the FICO 8 Bankcard Score algorithm, credit utilization is more closely scrutinized. This means that carrying a big balance on your cards will do more damage to your FICO 8 Bankcard Score than it will to your base FICO score.
One-off late payments won’t pinch as much – Your history with paying your bills on time accounts for the biggest part (35%) of your conventional FICO score; missing a payment by 30 days or more could cost you big points. However, in the FICO 8 Bankcard Score model, an isolated late payment won’t sting as much.
But be careful – if you habitually make late payments on your credit card bills, your FICO 8 Bankcard Score will suffer more than it would in the traditional model. "
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/fico-8-bankcard-score/
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