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The beginning of this month, my score dropped 3 points because I let AMEX report $6 to my credit score. I was kinda ticked because honestly $6 doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things for me. So my score dropped to 628.
Now I was approved for a US Bank Credit Card not too long ago. When that reported, my score increased by 14 points to 642. My account was a pretty heavy util but with low credit limits so it gave me a solid boost.
Now I can't wait to see how much further it will go up once Discover reports their CLI increase of $500.
This is ridiculous. Shouldn't my score drop further because I app'd for another CC? The oldest CC account I have is 5 months. Oldest TL is 5 years. I give up FICO. You win.
OP, which CRA are you looking at, and where did you get your score?
ETA....what kind of Amex do you have?
First off never give up. Your score probably did go down for the new account but you got a net gain for the lower util.
Like it or not, we all must learn to play the FICO score game either directly or indirectly but it is a gme you can win. It just takes time.
Tracking your score on a day to day (or really even month to month) basis and worrying about short-term score changes is absolutely an exercise in fustruation.
For all of our discussions and generalizations about FICO and how the algorithm works, the simple fact is it's far more complex than we understand in our conventional wisdom... and it leads to some counter-intuitive issues like you've landed on.
End of the day, don't sweat the short-term ups and downs of the score, it'll just lead to an array of negative feelings. Instead focus on the mid or long term score adjustment, you're looking at keeping the general trend upward when you're building or rebuilding. Also FWIW, short term changes unless you happen to be applying for a new product right now, are absolutely meaningless. All that matters is the score that hte lender pulls. As a result, I really don't worry about my balances or anything of the sort as long as I have the ability to pay them when I need to clean things up from a score perspective.