cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

tag
Tricky3
Valued Member

Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

So I have score watch and my scorce has dropped 4 and 2 points when my Target and Kohl's card balance went to zero (each was around 80~150 balance before).  There were no other "listed changes" from score watch.

 

 

Why the heck does my score drop 6 points when two of my smallest cards reach Zero? 

Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!


@Tricky3 wrote:

So I have score watch and my scorce has dropped 4 and 2 points when my Target and Kohl's card balance went to zero (each was around 80~150 balance before).  There were no other "listed changes" from score watch.

 

 

Why the heck does my score drop 6 points when two of my smallest cards reach Zero? 


Honestly I don't know; we're only just starting to get more data in regarding FICO 8 and that's never been my experience in testing the algorithms for a while nor others who have done so: every account I've zeroed out has lead to a positive or flat score change but my file is very very static compared to many people other than balance updates.

 

There may be something else in the algorithm which is causing the changes and you're simply getting notified on the balance changes (which is pretty common with Scorewatch and all monitoring solutions).  I can't really conjecture as to what without seeing before and after reports, and even then 6 points is a very very small change. 

 




        
Message 2 of 10
Tricky3
Valued Member

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

I understand where you are coming from and I know 6 points is not a giant drop.  However, Target went to zero (from $83) and I lost 2 points.  Then the next score change today, Kohl's went to zero (from $103) and I lose 4 points.  Between those two drops I had one other "Balance Change" which my Amex went from $2,892 to $374 and there was no change to my score at all!  All things being equal, you think I'd gain some points, not lose them.

 

If there is something else that has changed, then Score Watch very well should tell me Smiley Happy 

 

Its very strange to me. 

Message 3 of 10
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!


@Tricky3 wrote:

I understand where you are coming from and I know 6 points is not a giant drop.  However, Target went to zero (from $83) and I lost 2 points.  Then the next score change today, Kohl's went to zero (from $103) and I lose 4 points.  Between those two drops I had one other "Balance Change" which my Amex went from $2,892 to $374 and there was no change to my score at all!  All things being equal, you think I'd gain some points, not lose them.

 

If there is something else that has changed, then Score Watch very well should tell me Smiley Happy 

 

Its very strange to me. 


Scorewatch can't pick up things like tradelines aging which do make a difference in the file.

 

Charge card Amex or revolver?  If the former, no change is expected.  The latter, all depends if you changed your aggregate utilization or the individual tradeline utilization non-trivially.

 

Focus on the long term, the short term minor ups and downs really don't matter unless you've got a ticket to the big dance (mortgage qualification) and as your credit file ages and presumably becomes more stable the scores will stabilize too.  My scores have been pretty flat for a while.




        
Message 4 of 10
Tricky3
Valued Member

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

Well that's the problem acutally right now, I'm going for a 15 year Refinance at this very moment with BofA.  

 

Oh, Amex is a Platinum Charge, not revolver - its actually my oldest card.  I have a 9 year old BK and when Amex gave me my card back they back dated it (I am still beside myself they gave me the card back after burning them). 

 

I'll live through it for sure, just was wondering really - thank for your time in repliing Smiley Happy

 

 

Message 5 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

Since the amex is a charge card, did the balance decrease on the others lower util on revolvers to 0 percent? If so theres your answer. I lost 12 points tu and high single digeits on the other 2 when my revolving balances dropped to 0. Got all the points plus an extra or 2 when the next revolver posted enough to get overall util to 1 percent.

 

Message 6 of 10
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!


@Anonymous wrote:

Since the amex is a charge card, did the balance decrease on the others lower util on revolvers to 0 percent? If so theres your answer. I lost 12 points tu and high single digeits on the other 2 when my revolving balances dropped to 0. Got all the points plus an extra or 2 when the next revolver posted enough to get overall util to 1 percent.

 


$1 = non-zero as we understand it which bore out for me personally; there are some changes though for individual reports as to where their individual sweetspot is (some are at 3% as an example, have to play over the course of a few months to determine).

 

As for the charge card: those aren't counted for aggregate utilization anymore and haven't since FICO '04 (though I've seen one individual with some compelling data that suggests it might on on Equifax Beacon 9.0 I have not seen anyone else nor could I reproduce it myself), and as such a non-zero balance on the charge card isn't measured except the fact you have  a non-zero balance on it when it comes to the number of credit cards reporting a balance metric.  The actual balance on the card either as far as individual limit (high balance on a charge card historically) or against the total aggregate revolving limits isn't factored.




        
Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!

I got dinged points for only having 10 bucks reporting, then dinged again for 0. My real question was did those 2 0s lower OPs util to 0 on revolving. With a thin clean file like mine I can play around a bit...I will see what happens at 16 dollars this month which would be just under half a percent overall and 2 percent on my discover.

Message 8 of 10
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!


@Anonymous wrote:

I got dinged points for only having 10 bucks reporting, then dinged again for 0. My real question was did those 2 0s lower OPs util to 0 on revolving. With a thin clean file like mine I can play around a bit...I will see what happens at 16 dollars this month which would be just under half a percent overall and 2 percent on my discover.


I guess I'll see with mine with $7 vs $500ish reporting shortly as well but I've never personally seen a difference previously between $1 to 44% on a non-trivial tradeline when I was testing.




        
Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Last two Score Drops from Balance Decrease ?!?!


@Tricky3 wrote:

Well that's the problem acutally right now, I'm going for a 15 year Refinance at this very moment with BofA.  

 

Oh, Amex is a Platinum Charge, not revolver - its actually my oldest card.  I have a 9 year old BK and when Amex gave me my card back they back dated it (I am still beside myself they gave me the card back after burning them). 

 

I'll live through it for sure, just was wondering really - thank for your time in repliing Smiley Happy

 

 


Hey, maybe you can get AX to give me back my AX Plat from the BK of 14 years ago? Sometimes I see posts like yours and I almost think there is hope Smiley Wink

Message 10 of 10
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.