On November 29^th, Liz Weston from MSN published the following article on how FICO Score Damage Points are calculated:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/weston-5-ways-to-kill-your-credit-scores.aspx?page=1

Essentially what happened was FICO simulated the impact of a variety of credit behaviors on FICO scores of both 680 and 780.  This is layed out in the below chart: 

Unfortunately, this information is not entirely correct.  It holds true for some cases, but it leaves out some very important points.  What FICO did not disclose and the article does not convey is that four of the five actions listed above will cause your credit file to be scored in a new scorecard!

FICO scores measure your credit file’s potential risk by scoring it using a unique algorithm specifically designed for your file type, called a scorecard. That means if you have a bankruptcy then you’re scored in a bankruptcy scorecard. If your credit file only has one or two accounts then it’s scored in what’s referred to as a thin file scorecard, and so forth and so on.

Point being, all of our credit files are not scored the same way AND not all are scored using the same FICO formula. Four of the five actions above are negative. And, when a clean file suddenly is hit with something negative it will go from essentially a “clean credit file” scorecard to a “derogatory file” scorecard. The result is a completely different measurement for EVERYTHING on your file. So adding a foreclosure or a settlement or a 30-day late payment or a bankruptcy to your credit file doesn’t “cost” it the points you see above. It causes everything on your file to have a new value so the score change can’t be attributed just to the negative item. The score change has to be attributed to the change in scorecards.

Point differences for the exact same action on the exact same FICO score can be anything but exactly the same. John Ulzheimer, one of the creators of the FICO score, re-interviewed FICO’s Public Affairs Director, Craig Watts. He was able to confirm from Watts that the examples in the FICO chart were “hypothetical” and “could vary significantly” from consumer to consumer. You can Ulzheimer’s his full article here.

http://www.credit.com/news/experts/2009-11-29/real-fico-score-damage-point-amounts-clarified.html

In summary, not all credit scores and scorecards are created equally!  Be careful what you read out there!