Score Drops due to becoming Debt Free

[Anonymous]

I had over 40K in cc debt and finally last month I became debt free. I know many people on the forums have said it was better to have the ccc report a balance and then PIF but I wanted to see what would happen if my two cc reported a zero balance. 

So far....

BOA reported my balance last night. It had a credit on it as I had gotten a credit from one of the merchants. Last month the balance was $600 now it stands as credit of $32....my equifax fico went from 773 to 763....creditkarma's transunion score has held steady at 789.

Now I am waiting to see what happens when Citi reports its zero balance. 

[Lel]

Generally, letting one card report a small balance generates a slightly better score than having all cards report zero balances.

[haulingthescoreup]

Let us know what happens if you have $0 across the board. With me, it was 2/ 4/ 6 point drops, although I can't remember which drop for which bureau. (This was back when we had EX FICO's.)

Your scores are higher than mine, so your drops would probably be higher as well.

[marty56]

These days my TU score will go up 10 points for 0% util and my EQ score goes down 3.  IMHO my EX score drop 4 points for 0% util which was the case for my EX score in my sig.  Its last known score prior to this was 760 and I had 1% util.  I do not know why TU likes 0% util these days.  I would love to know what TU'04 would say on having 0% reported.

LOL it seems more work these days to manage zero CC debt since I have to remember to use the cards and decide what I want reported, if any.  I think I'm going to report 0% util for awhile and PIF the cards I use prior to the statement date and hope I dont see any AA.