Credit Score Simulation - How Your Score is Affected

May 16th, 2006

Sometimes it is difficult to know how different actions are going to affect your credit score. Recently free credit reports have become available to people once a year (or more often, in some states). Because of this, you may want to estimate what your score is in between free credit checks (although it is recommended that you check your credit report more often than once per year).

The following scale is based on a good credit score (750 or higher FICO). Due to this, some of these actions may cause a more severe change in credit scores lower than this. This also explains why having a large amount of inquiries has no change associated with it (since a person with good credit will be likely to use it to shop around for the best deal).

Keep in mind that this scale is only a simulation of how your FICO may be affected by credit-related actions. Don’t take anything you see here as certainty!

Revolving Credit Line Usage (such as Credit Cards):
0-15%: Baseline
16-29%: -3
30-50%: -5
51-64%: -7
65+%: -15

Bankruptcy Filing:
No: Baseline
Yes: -170

Number of Inquiries:
0: Baseline
1-2: -5
3-4: no change
5-6: -5
7+: no change

Delinquent or Past Due Accounts:
No: Baseline
Yes: -50

Open Lines of Credit/Loan Balances:
0: Baseline
1-2: no change
3-4: -3
5+: -5

Open Mortgage:
Yes: Baseline
No: -5

It is not unheard of for credit scores to drop 30 points based on a 50% usage of revolving credit, so these are more guidelines than hard and fast rules.

Entry Filed under: Credit Card Use
Related Topics: simulation fico scores (2)- credit report simulation (1)- "credit score 750" (1)- credit card simulation (1)- credit score simulation (1)- "FICO " credit score simulation (1)-