Score plummeted 49 points!!

[Anonymous]

Guys my Transunion score plummeted 49 points and i cant figure out why. I have 6 credit cards. Valero gas card $500, Capital One secured $250, Old Navy $300, Belk $200, Walmart $300 and Kohls $300. The only change to my credit report was Capital One reporting a $205 balance. My other cards no balance at all. Why would my score nose dive that heavily? I don't have charge off's, late payments or leins. This puzzles me because i was under the impression that if i stayed below 30% utilization that it would be healthy for my score.

[Anonymous]

It probably dropped because your Cap1 card is over 80% utilization. The 30% utilization is across all cards, but having a high utilization on an individual card is not good. But utilization has no memory so your score will recover when you pay the cap1 down or off

[Anonymous]

so you saying that i should not use more than 30% of my total credit limit for any card that i have and no more than 30% of my toal available credit with all limits combined?

[Anonymous]

You can use it, just make sure you pay it down before the cards report which is usually a few days after the due date. Look at your statements. They should say something like 'billing period Jan 5 thru Feb 5' with a due date of Feb 1. Generally the day or 2 after the end of the period is when it reports. Might take a month or 2 to figure out each card's report dates.

[Anonymous]

The most important thing is to make sure you pay at least the minimum due before the due date. More is better, but if all you can do that month is the minimum then do it so you won't get a late payment fee. Like I said, utilization has no memory so it can be fixed the next month

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

so you saying that i should not use more than 30% of my total credit limit for any card that i have and no more than 30% of my toal available credit with all limits combined?

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No, you can use as much as you need to, but pay your balances in full each month, and when you need to maximize your scores, pay your balances down before your statement close date.

[AutoBot]

I would be shooting for10% or less utilization on all cards collectively by the time the statements cut.

[lg8302ch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

so you saying that i should not use more than 30% of my total credit limit for any card that i have and no more than 30% of my toal available credit with all limits combined?

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No, you can use as much as you need to, but pay your balances in full each month, and when you need to maximize your scores, pay your balances down before your statement close date.

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^this^    ....and on the bright side: Fico has no memory for utilization.  So if you pay down your balance and let the new amount report on your next statement your score will come right up provided  the utilization was the reason for the drop.  If you really do  not want to suffer roller coaster with your Fico scores then just pay down the balance before statement gets cut and leave less than 10% but not 0% on 1 card  and all other cards  0%. Like this your scores will remain in optimal shape all the time but it takes more effort to handle. Personally I am way too lazy for this and do only pay down before statement cut date if  I want to apply for something and the rest of the year I do not care about my scores going up or down.

[Anonymous]

I took a 17 point hit for having the ulitilization of my Cap1 QS go from 10% to over 30% as it is my only card reporting.   I'm glad utilization has no memory because I can jack it back up next month where I also added two more credit cards so I can keep my untilzation under 10% on all.  

[CYBERSAM]

I agree with all the utilization percentage recommendations that have been said so far. However you are rebuilding and your CL on each card is too low to have 10% utilization formula to be practical.

I believe you should try to have your utilization at 0%, use your cards as debit instead of credit till your score and CL goes higher. Just try to buy a drink or something, have that show as utilization no more then 1%.

Also that 49 point drop was it from Fico Score? What is the score showing in your Walmart Card?