topic Re: Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt in Credit Cards

Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt

Minato08 — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:34:49 GMT

Since coming here, I learned (or at least thought I learned) a lot about credit reporting. However, something weird happened recently.

I've been keeping my credit cards at 0 balances for the last several months. Before then, I had large balances and I saw my score jump dramatically for paying them off (about 100 points). Just the other day, one of my cards reported a $1.00 balance and my fico jumped up another 15 points. This is counterintuitive to say the least.

Re: Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debtr

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:52:09 GMT

i believe is not because of the debt , there is another x factor , for example your acct getting older or etc

Re: Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:15:40 GMT

@Minato08 wrote:
Since coming here, I learned (or at least thought I learned) a lot about credit reporting. However, something weird happened recently.

I've been keeping my credit cards at 0 balances for the last several months. Before then, I had large balances and I saw my score jump dramatically for paying them off (about 100 points). Just the other day, one of my cards reported a $1.00 balance and my fico jumped up another 15 points. This is counterintuitive to say the least.

No, that's normal. If all your cards report zero balances, you show that you don't use any credit and get dinged by the scoring formula. Reporting one balance of $1.00 shows that you make use of credit, but don't carry large balances. If you don't use credit, your score will be penalized.

Re: Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt

Creditaddict — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:09:16 GMT

yes you need to have at least 1 card a month report a balance less than 9% of your credit line for optimizing score. If you have several accounts, I would rotate which one reports each month

Re: Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:05:55 GMT

"Juicy Fruit Ficos".

Buy a pack (or two) of gum, let that balance report...and chew your way to higher Fico scores!