Affecting TU score...i don't get it

[TravellingNomad]

this is the message from my quarterly alert:

Your FICO® score has dropped from 730 to 706

Your TransUnion score has dropped from 730 on 6/24/2011 to 706 on 7/25/2011 .

Some of the reason for this change:

You no longer have a positive factor helping your score: "You've limited the use of your available credit."

You no longer have a positive factor helping your score: "You've shown recent use of credit cards."

You have a new negative factor hurting your score: "You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit."

i don't get it because it seems that each point contradicted each other.  the first one said it affected my score because i've limited the use of my credit...which is true because i've stopped using my BBRZ MC and cap one cards (balances on both are under $100).  i have been heavily using my Discover Miles card so I can rack up the rewards.  my util on it right now is 75%, but do pay a big chunk every paycheck.  it says that i've made heavy use of my revolving credit, so i guess me using th crud out of just one credit card is a heavy use, i guess.  but it contradicts the second bullet about recent use of credit cards no longer a positive factor.

my TU score still is pass the 700 mark, but the factors affecting my score is just so darn confusing.

[Anonymous]

It appears to me that the first and third basically say the same thing, you have increased your utilization.

If you have a purpose for increasing the utilization and have no need to apply for credit any time soon I wouldn't worry about the dings. Just pay the balances down when you need to and you will see your score increase.

[Anonymous]

Also, making the payment before the statement drops (or whenever it is reporting to the CRA's) and leaving it alone for a few days should prevent that larger balance from reporting each month. So you can use it but just have it report with a low balance.

[Booner72]

Yeah but the point of this is :  That the information is not helpful at all!  It is totally contradicting and what the heck is Nomad supposed to do?

[Anonymous]

Your FICO score will improve when your utilization is lowered.

Remember that utilization is a significant part of your score, and 75% utilization on a card will generally bring lower FICO scores.

What to do?

First, remember that FICO looks at reported balances, so be sure your reported balance is where you want it to be.  Generally, most accounts report your balance as of the statement date.  FICO scores on overall reported utilization and also on individual reported utilization.

 FICO also looks at how many cards are reporting balances, so the general mantra is to have all cards but one report a zero balance, with the remaining one card reporting less than 9%.

That will address both the first and third point - they are saying the same thing.  You no longer have low utilization as a positive factor, and you now have high utilization as a negative factor.

This is one of those areas where you are in control - utilization pokes the FICO beastie.  Those scores will perk up when you pay down (and off) the balances.

[TravellingNomad]

thanks everyone for the input.  like Booner said...it's just confusing if you are reading it as it is given to you.

beam...thanks for the breakdown of it.  your explanation makes sense.  i guess it'll be some time before my score goes up again.  in the past month, 2 new cc's started reporting and chase most likely isn't that far behind.  so at least when all cc's are finally up and running on my reports, that will help with my overall util.  but as for the Discover card, it'll take a few months for me to pay it down.  the balance pretty much is the BT i did back in May.  it's under 1K, but like i said, it is the card with the highest util right now because of the BT.

i guess nowhere to go but up from this point on.  slipped down the slope of the credit mountain before...so going back up shouldn't be that hard for me anymore since i already know what to do...thanks to this forum/website.

[Anonymous]

"Yeah but the point of this is :  That the information is not helpful at all!  It is totally contradicting and what the heck is Nomad supposed to do?"

I didn't see it as contradicting and explained why I thought that. I gave him advice on what to do. As did someone else.

Hope it helps Nomad!

[haulingthescoreup]

Scorewatch alerts are written by Yoda.

You have to untangle the double negatives to figure out what's going on.

Every now and then I still get one that says something like:

    The following factor does not hurt your score as much: You have recent lates.

The problem is, I read it as:

     The following factor does not hurt your score as much: You have recent lates.

This is seriously bad for my heart. 

And even then, they often have absolutely nothing to do with why my score really changed.

eta: lol, and I just realized that OP was talking about TUQM alerts. Looks like Yoda writes for them too!

[Booner72]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Yeah but the point of this is :  That the information is not helpful at all!  It is totally contradicting and what the heck is Nomad supposed to do?"

I didn't see it as contradicting and explained why I thought that. I gave him advice on what to do. As did someone else.

Hope it helps Nomad!

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Hi Independentlady - i didnt mean to say you were being unhelpful.  Only that FICO scoring is being unhelpful.