$3745 drop - no FICO Points

[Anonymous]

I dont understand the logic behind the scoring that is done. I just paid $3745 on a card reducing utilization from 77% to 30% on a Chase SW Airlines card (reported by EXP) - there was no increase in points given for the reduction.

However, I paid a measly $37 and 950 balance on two other cards that were reported and they give me 11 points for this, but nothing for a $3745 reduction. No other actions such as opening accounts/INQ's is a factor. This makes no sense no me. Has anyone seen this?

[Anonymous]

Are you sure the new lower balance has been reported to the bureaus already?

Another thing to consider is that at 29% utilization I believe is where the next bump would be given... so if the reporting has been done already if you pay down 1% more you may see a nice bump.

[Revelate]

Unless you cross a breakpoint on the individual card or aggregate, no change if you don't zero it out.

If you zero out a tradeline as you intimated with the other two, that counts on the third part of revolving utilization: number of revolving accounts with balances (which is just a simple ratio, revolvers with balance / revolvers total) which is would be my first blush estimate without seeing the reports and full revolving numbers.

[Anonymous]

Verified that was reported to EXP which is where this Chase Southwest Airlines Visa was reported to per the MyFICO monitoring alerts.

You may be right in that it needs to show south of 30% to hit a breakpoint so I will pay down again to lower just below the 30% mark to see if it makes a difference. Right now I'm 694 on EXP, 702 on EQ, 697 on TU. This card is a $8000 limit and went from 77% util to 30%. I am just surprised that EXP gave no points for lowering from 77% to 30% util on indivudual card considering it is one my higher limit cars. I guess I try getting it below 30% to see if that hits a breakpoint.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised too that you didn't see something, but I'm not sure where FICO 08's upper limits are above 9% and 29% where you could see a bump.  I think under Vantage 3.0 scoring (Credit Karma) you get something at 49%, but that doesn't mean that FICO follows that model.

[Anonymous]

To top it off, I also paid down nearly $2000 on a Costco AMEX to lower util to 60% - which is still a high util but still no points on that either. I'm trying to raise everything for a mortgage. However, this seems to be a marathon as FICO has not been kind to me. My Credit Karma / Vantage updates tommorow - although that score doesnt matter i'll be interested to see what it says.

[RonM21]

Sorry you haven't seen a change yet. But eventually something will give with the great efforts you're going through to improve your profile.

[Anonymous]

Good news, today TU picked up overall balances with a decrease utilizatoin and got a 24 point bump. Now at 721 TU, 709 EQ, 704 EX. Still some balances to be reported so hopeful I will see some more increases!

[Anonymous]

Nice!  Definitely a solid bump there.