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Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

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tetazoo
New Member

Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

So, I found out that my credit score with TransUnion was 681 and much of that was due to my 102% utilization.  I paid off one of my cards and got my utilization down to 37%.  I actually paid off both, but waiting for the next statement on the other card.  Anyway, my score dropped 36 points down to 645.  Nothing else has changed other than mortgage and car have a tiny bit more principal paid on them.

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

Message 2 of 9
Cavifl45
New Member

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

maybe you have to give it another month to reflect on you credit


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Message 3 of 9
thom02099
Valued Contributor

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?


@tetazoo wrote:

So, I found out that my credit score with TransUnion was 681 and much of that was due to my 102% utilization.  I paid off one of my cards and got my utilization down to 37%.  I actually paid off both, but waiting for the next statement on the other card.  Anyway, my score dropped 36 points down to 645.  Nothing else has changed other than mortgage and car have a tiny bit more principal paid on them.


What's the source?  You didn't indicate if this is a FICO score or from some other source, such as the TU site (a FAKO score), Credit Karma (also a FAKO score), or some other source. 

 

All things being equal, dropping util should result in a score increase.  However, it could take a cycle or 2 to fully see the complete results.  Paying off "one of the cards" and getting "utilization down to 37%" would indicate you have multiple cards at play here.  Depends on when their statement/reporting cycles are, as to when you'd see results.

Message 4 of 9
tetazoo
New Member

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

It was my TransUnion score from Credit Karma.  The other credit card getting paid off should be reflected any day now, so I'm not sure if that means my score will drop even more or what.  BTW, I'm keeping my balances low, but non-zero and, since my original post, I have gotten a credit limit increase from $800 to $2400 and verified with AmEx that it was only a soft pull from their regular monitoring, not a hard pull.  Waiting to see the results of that as well.  Maybe three good things will drop my score by three times as many points?

Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

Same thing happened to me , I lowered my utilization my FICO showed Equifax dropped me by 2 points you can't win for losing with this people, I don't trust Equifax any,ore

 

Message 6 of 9
superj
Member

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

Same here...Paid down two credit cards to zero...my equifax score went up 4 points from a 774 to 778...My experian score went down 4 points from a 778 to 774...Can't win for losing...smh

Message 7 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?

But wouldn't paying down the cards give him a larger amount of credit available which is a good thing in raising score? Just a newbie so please accept my apologies if I'm interjecting opinion where it shouldn't be. Thank You !

Message 8 of 9
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Why did my score drop after improving utilization?


@Anonymous wrote:

But wouldn't paying down the cards give him a larger amount of credit available which is a good thing in raising score? Just a newbie so please accept my apologies if I'm interjecting opinion where it shouldn't be. Thank You !


Typically yes but there's some data wonkiness with the new monitoring solutions.  CK though is never relevant when it comes to FICO, it'll be closer when they get out of their beta and roll out VS 3.0 as their mainline score.

 

I have noticed that the number of accounts with balances calculation appears to be different between the bureaus for me, as I've been zeroing out my lazy utilization with the same balances reported I see different trigger points on each: I'll get a bump on EQ but not on EX, and then not on EQ but on EX as accounts are paid to zero.  It's passing strange but I'm hestitant to really conjecture what's going on currently with it... I had a pretty good handle on Scorewatch, but the 3B monitoring I really haven't been doing much analysis on. 




        
Message 9 of 9
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