Mark was making every effort to raise his FICO scores in order to purchase a home. His Experian (Classic) FICO scores was at 702. He had gone in and opened an account with Experian Boost hoping to increase his credit scores. However, he was questioning that maybe it was not helping his scores.
Experian Boost uses credit references from utility payments to supplement a person’s credit score. In Mark’s case, he opens an Experian Boost account and had Dish Network report his payment history, along with Comcast, AT&T, Questar Gas, and Netflix. The accounts all started reporting within 30 days. He thought Experian Boost was helping him, but his FICO score was not moving after all this effort.
One of the concerning issues he saw on his credit report right next to his Experian FICO Score was the statement “Number of Accounts with a Balance.” Every utility payment on his report had a balance of the last bill amount paid. This was concerning to him so he contacted the support group with My Credit Plan.
After reviewing his concerns, the counselor recommended to close a couple of the utility accounts with Experian Boost. He went and removed the Netflix and Dish Network account from the Boost program. What happened next was totally surprised.
What Mark discovered totally surprised him; his Experian FICO score went up to 710 by dropping the utility accounts out the Boost program. The Experian Boost program, through the extensive utility reporting program, was actually dropping his Experian FICO Score.
Through Experian Boost, every time a utility payment is reported to your credit report, it reports another open account with a balance. One of the big factors in your FICO scores is the number of accounts with a balance. As the Boost program from Experian was adding more and more utility payments, it was actually dropping his Experian FICO Score.
This has been evidenced in another situation two months ago. Chris dropped out of Experian Boost and saw his Experian FICO score increase almost 13 points. This also happened from the reduction of active loan balances when his utility payments no longer reported to his credit report.
Experian Boost program is not as helpful as one person might think. It can provide some minimal improvement in the right situation. The average score improvement for Boost is 12 points. It is 58 points for My Credit Plan. For this reason, best to work with My Credit Plan.
FICO is a Registered Trademark fo FICO / Fair Isaac Corporation. Experian Boost is trademark by Experian.