topic Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0% in Understanding FICO® Scoring

-14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 10:47:55 GMT

Yesterday, I was at 1% utilization. The card I want to report a small balance doesn't report until the 12th and I paid off the 1% on another card that reported today. I wasn't even thinking about the 1 week gap having no balance on any cards reporting.

This morning I received an alert from EX that my score decreased 14 points. My "Amount of Debt" rating has went from "Exceptional" to "Very Good". Just another example of how there definitely needs to be a balance on a revolver.

I am hoping that once the other card reports a balance I get all 14 points back?

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

HeavenOhio — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 11:31:20 GMT

Your points should come back as long as your new balance isn't drastically larger than your previous small balance.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 11:42:51 GMT

I am hoping so. It actually was 0% reporting but the balance on one card I leave reporting is 6.00 so it made it 1% and kept it from being 0%. I only plan to leave 6.00 again on another card as I try to rotate the balance on different cards every month.

I just saw your post and having the same issue. Thanks.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

stw715 — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 23:20:32 GMT

Yes, you will get them back assuming your credit reports are sterile/no other movements...

Noting the reason #2

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:30:43 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
Your points should come back as long as your new balance isn't drastically larger than your previous small balance.

While HO is more or less correct above, I'd just revise it to say that as long as your reported utilization is the same as it was previously you'll get all the points back. Since it's a different CC, there's a chance (for example) that the limit on that CC is dramatically larger, meaning you could have a dramatically larger balance report on it and still be within the same utilization threshold constraints.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:47:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@HeavenOhio wrote:
Your points should come back as long as your new balance isn't drastically larger than your previous small balance.
While HO is more or less correct above, I'd just revise it to say that as long as your reported utilization is the same as it was previously you'll get all the points back. Since it's a different CC, there's a chance (for example) that the limit on that CC is dramatically larger, meaning you could have a dramatically larger balance report on it and still be within the same utilization threshold constraints.

Very true. The balance I have been letting report monthly is 6.00. The 6.00 of total CL is actually like .000003 or something but it still counts as 1% overall with all total cards reporting 0. I'll definitely do some math to make sure it comes out to the same, especially with the new NFCU and Cash Magnet I just got last week with 10k each on them and who knows when they will start reporting. Thanks for pointing that out.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:52:35 GMT

Keep in mind that there's likely not a difference between .000001%, 1%, 5% and up to 8.9% in terms of a reported balance. I'm just pointing this out to illustrate that it's not necessary to report just $6 like you are doing. I used to micromanage my balances to small single-digit amounts on 5-figure limits, but it really accomplishes nothing. I finally gave up on that and while I still let [relatively] small balances report, all of them are at least 2-digit and some 3-digit balances, but all reported utilization percentages land typically in the 1%-5% range, give or take.

Very odd this month without any micromanaging I had 4 of my cards report balances of $75, $76, $77 and $78. Very strange how that worked out.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 01:18:40 GMT

Do charge cards report the same? My current amex doesn't report a limit like the other cards but it does show "revolver" as the other cards and this reports the soonest of all my cards(Friday). I will plan on carrying a small balance. The statement closing date is the 11th and I have always paid before closing so it reports a 0 balance, so unfortunuately, that's the reason I don't know. Usage shows a % but with the Amex it shows "-" which I am assuming is because it's 0? Although, the other cards actually shows 0% (or whatever the utilization is) under usage.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 03:04:12 GMT

OP, it’s the no revolving account penalty. I just did a test and at 2 bureaus, I lost 14 points and at the other bureau 13. They came back as soon as I showed a balance within the same percentage as stated above. Nothing to worry about.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:33:59 GMT

Correct. When comapring reports I noticed this was missing after everything reported zero.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 13:13:30 GMT

I just got the alert from MyFico and it said "Balance Alert Change" from 6.00 to 0.00 caused 14 point decrease.

Already knew this but nice to have it confirmed from that and experian.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 00:49:30 GMT

@FicoGuy2019 wrote:
I just got the alert from MyFico and it said "Balance Alert Change" from 6.00 to 0.00 caused 14 point decrease.

Just an FYI, the alert system doesn't work the way you worded it above. The alert is for the balance change yes, but it did not say that the alert reason caused the 14 point decrease. Any time you receive an alert you are provided with a new score at that time, but the new score may be influenced by other factors outside of the alert reason. In this case I'm quite sure that the alert reason and score change in fact are directly related, but it's important to understand going forward that the alert is not saying that the score change is because of it.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 00:54:38 GMT

Very very true, this just happens to be one of those cases where they actually do correlate, does happen every now and again..lol... not very often though.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 03:05:54 GMT

Correct. Definitely understand that and yes, this time it does coorelate...thankfully.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

HeavenOhio — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 08:52:33 GMT

There's correlation, but there isn't direct causation.

The alert is for the zero balance. But the zero balance in and of itself didn't cause the score change.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 12:22:52 GMT

I'm not really following you above. A reported $0 balance if it brings one to AZ (no revolving credit use) can cause a score change (drop) as we all know.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

HeavenOhio — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 13:24:49 GMT

The alert is for the zero balance on one card. It says nothing about "all cards at zero," which is the actual cause of the score change.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 13:45:59 GMT

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 02:10:29 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
The alert is for the zero balance on one card. It says nothing about "all cards at zero," which is the actual cause of the score change.

I guess that's sort of semantics, as I thought it was more or less a given we were talking AZ based on what the OP said.

Re: -14 points for utilization going from 1% to 0%

FicoGuy2019 — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 10:56:58 GMT

@FicoGuy2019 wrote:
Do charge cards report the same? My current amex doesn't report a limit like the other cards but it does show "revolver" as the other cards and this reports the soonest of all my cards(Friday). I will plan on carrying a small balance. The statement closing date is the 11th and I have always paid before closing so it reports a 0 balance, so unfortunuately, that's the reason I don't know. Usage shows a % but with the Amex it shows "-" which I am assuming is because it's 0? Although, the other cards actually shows 0% (or whatever the utilization is) under usage.

Amex reported like clockwork since my statement closed on the 11th. So to answer this question, since my Amex Zync is NPSL it reported a balance but it shows no credit limit and no usage like my other cards do....so it doesn't calculate it in my total utilization and still shows it's zero and I still have the reason code "No credit card activity". I am now assuming that we can't use charge cards with NPSL to calculate in to utilization?

My new Amex Cash Magnet closes on Sunday (14th) but I don't know how long it will take Amex to report the new card on my reports. Maybe I should leave a balance on it, just in case it reports on my reports on the 15th/16th?

Edit: Now that I think about, I guess if the CM does report, I won't really find out the answer about getting all of the points back since I'll have a new card reporting which may or may not affect my score as well. So, if the CM doesn't report this week, it's a good thing because I will have another card reporting at the beginning of May before next Amex statement closing....if it does, oh well.