8 point drop in Equifax for new $40 balance?

[bobebob]

Just a generic gripe. 

Let a $40 balance report on a card (Walmart discover) that is usually zeroed out at statement time.  That's about half a percent of the limit.

Droped my Equifax score from 795 to 787. Seems a little excessive to me.

[Shogun]

Did you have another account with a balance on it?  If so, multiple accounts with balances get a bit of a ding.

[guiness56]

The higher your scores the more even little things will hurt it.

[HiLine]

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@guiness56 wrote:

The higher your scores the more even little things will hurt it.

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+1

The effect can be amplified if you significantly increase the percentage of cards with a balance (going from 25% to 50% for example)

[bobebob]

Yeah, that's basically what happened.  I had a balance on two of my 4 cards. 

Even though the total Util was lower than last month.

Just seems like they could realize that not everyone takes every card.  And "gee" you might have a balance on more than one card.

Ehh, anything over 760 is gravy anyway.  Just seems like they could have a better way to score that would be a more accurate measure of risk.

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@HiLine wrote:

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@guiness56 wrote:

The higher your scores the more even little things will hurt it.

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+1

The effect can be amplified if you significantly increase the percentage of cards with a balance (going from 25% to 50% for example)

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[bobebob]

Update:

My new bill for AMEX and my balance went up over 2K and no change to my FICO on SW.

That's what doesn't make sense:

 - a $40 increase on a card that didn't have a balance before drops the score 8 pts.

 - but a $2,000 increase on one that had a balance doesn't do anything to my score?

I give up trying to figure out the scoring method.  (probably what they want anyway)

[myjourney]

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@bobebob wrote:

Update:

My new bill for AMEX and my balance went up over 2K and no change to my FICO on SW.

That's what doesn't make sense:

 - a $40 increase on a card that didn't have a balance before drops the score 8 pts.

 - but a $2,000 increase on one that had a balance doesn't do anything to my score?

I give up trying to figure out the scoring method.  (probably what they want anyway)

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Hang in there you will find your sweet spot all files are different...1-9% gets me a couple of points..but 1-5% caused more upward movement 5-8 points needless to say you know were I try to stay..Lol

Just came off a app spree so now I have to find the sweet spot all over again

[guiness56]

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@bobebob wrote:

Update:

My new bill for AMEX and my balance went up over 2K and no change to my FICO on SW.

That's what doesn't make sense:

 - a $40 increase on a card that didn't have a balance before drops the score 8 pts.

 - but a $2,000 increase on one that had a balance doesn't do anything to my score?

I give up trying to figure out the scoring method.  (probably what they want anyway)

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I think score changes for SW come 7 - 10 days after something is reported.  That is what I keep reading.

[bobebob]

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@guiness56 wrote:

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@bobebob wrote:

Update:

My new bill for AMEX and my balance went up over 2K and no change to my FICO on SW.

That's what doesn't make sense:

 - a $40 increase on a card that didn't have a balance before drops the score 8 pts.

 - but a $2,000 increase on one that had a balance doesn't do anything to my score?

I give up trying to figure out the scoring method.  (probably what they want anyway)

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I think score changes for SW come 7 - 10 days after something is reported.  That is what I keep reading.

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It's been 2 weeks since my Amex bill showed the 2K increase.  Still no change in FICO score.

Usually as soon as I get the alert, the score changes.

So it seems like they are much more worried about the $40 on a previously zeroed card than a 2K increase on one that wasn't.  Go figure.

[Dubious]

So I'm not taking the time to do the math with your limits, but I'm guessing even though the absolute number seems large (2k) it didn't actually affect your util that much percentage wise (let's just say it went from 7 to 9% or something). 

In any case, your bucket probably scores number of accounts with a balance pretty highly.