Myth: Credit scores have a memory

September 27, 2016

There are those who believe credit scoring models or the national credit reporting companies store your credit scores and update them as they change, but that’s not the way the process works.

Imagine that you checked your VantageScore® 3.0 credit score from Equifax and were surprised to see that it had dropped to 600. So you obtained a copy of your Equifax credit report from annualcreditreport.com and spotted a collections account that didn’t belong there. You challenged the validity of the information, Equifax confirmed that the item was reported in error and it removed the
collections entry from your file. You thereafter check your VantageScore from Equifax and see that your score has increased to 700.

The myth would have you believe that the VantageScore scoring model updated the 600 score to 700, but that is not how models work. The scoring model doesn’t know what was on your credit report 30, 60 or 90 days ago, or whenever anyone last checked your score. The model starts fresh every time your score is determined, and considers only what’s in your credit report at that specific moment in time. The brand-new score generated in that instant reflects the information stored in your file at that moment. Scoring models have no memory of scores they generated in the past.

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