Jump of 28 in 7 Days and then Back Down Again???

[asa2014]

I'm so confused.  I've just started paying attention to my FICO score (after a divorce, and need to finance a car).  

At the beginning of December my score was around 640.  I made two loan applications for a car (both of which were denied) and my score went down to 619.  I think the loans were denied because of my debt / income ratio.  My name is on a used car loan to STBE, plus my credit cards were too much.  My score has remained at constant 619. 

On 1/22 it went to 647 because of a payment on a credit card.  I've had this card for three years.  No late payments and last time I charged something was about two months ago.

On 1/29 it went back down to 619 because of a payment on a different credit card???  I've also had this card for three years.  No late payments, and haven't charged anything in over three or four months.  

Both of the payments made are payments I make every month (minimum payments).

On my credit report, generally, I've had one late 30-day late payment probably five years ago and two 30-day late payments on a mortgage five years ago that was turned over to the bank for a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but the bank has reported the mortgage as paid (nothing about the deed in lieu of).

On the divorce, I did find out that STBE had the car refinanced in his name alone on 1/30.

Can anyone explain why the jump and then drop again just because I'm paying my credit cards like I should be, without incurring any more debt?  Thanks so much, and many apologies as I know questions of this sort have probably been asked many times.

[guiness56]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Are all of your CC reporting balances, even small ones?  FICO will ding you if they all report balances or, likewise, 0 balances.  What is your utilization?

For optimal scoring, let all but one report 0 and the other at 9% or below.

[asa2014]

Unfortunately, having all report zero, except one is not an option right now if you mean paying off all but one card.  All credit cards are reporting balances.  That hasn't changed in the past year.  Nothing has changed on my credit report to justify such a jump and then a decrease back to where it was at, EXCEPT credit cards going down by paying the minimum balances due. 

[Revelate]

Is this from Scorewatch or something similar?

I'm not certain assuming you have similar balances being reported each month what would've necessarily caused it, but at least with Scorewatch it doesn't track all changes.  As an example, I gained 2 points but that score update was came from when I had a small balance report on yet another card, and then didn't budge when another card was zeroed out shortly after.  Utilization didn't change throughout, only number of cards, and opposite what was expected.

What actually happened was during this time I had my last two scoreable inquiries drop out consideration on Equifax, but Scorewatch did not flag that as a triggerable event and so the score update was reported when I had a balance change.

In this case for a transient jump, did you dispute anything by chance?  The dispute process can cause something like what you experienced but I'm struggling to think what else might've but would need more details from your reports to try to suggest anything else unfortunately.