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[denise_a]

Hi, I would just like to know if it’s normal for credit scores to go up and down occasionally?

Like last month it was March -730 now its April-696. This happened before last year but not as many points in 2013December- 727 then 2014January-716.

Now I only have one credit card Discover, nothing else that can be calculated into my credit score like paying bills or anything. I always pay on time and well over the minimum payment, sometimes I pay it so the balance is $0 and I don’t have a bill.

[Ghoshida]

You might want to pull your free credit report and see if something wrong was reported by mistake.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com

[Kenny]

Yes, absolutely normal for the score to change. You also are at more of a disadvantage having only one card, because whatever balance you let report on your statement then that is the amount that is divided by your total credit limit to get your utilization percentage. Your percentage of credit utilization makes up a good portion of your credit score and this could be why you are having swings in your score. (Utilization is 30% of your score, so that's a large portion!)

I always recommend you pull your www.annualcreditreport.com reports each year so that you know what is and is not on your credit report.

I definitely recommend that you get 2 more cards. (This may impact your average age of accounts, but by getting more cards this can make your scores not swing as much because they would be buoyed by the two other trade lines.)

For optimal scores, it is recommended to have all cards report with a 0 balance except for one card which should be no more than 1-9% of that card's limit.

If you have ANY more questions AT ALL, please don't hesitate to ask, because that's the reason we're here... to help! It also helps me better understand the material myself, so I never mind.

Helpful link: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Credit-Scoring-101-START-HERE/td-p/8169