topic Re: Odd Experian score drop in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 16:17:50 GMT

So I went to check my Experian report today and for some reason my score dropped 16 points from yesterday. The weird thing is, the only change is one of my cards updated the balance to $0 (was $7). I still have cards reporting balances and those have been that way for over a week without any change. Seems like a big drop for only a small change to my report.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:43:43 GMT

If you have other cards reporting non-zero balances, something else happened. Look back farther. You may have had some other UTI-related change (or maybe a new account or inquiry?) in the past week that caused the drop. Unless that $7 report pushed you over an aggregate utilization threshold, something else caused the drop.

What are your balances and limits for your other cards?

EDIT - I read that wrong, thinking you went from $0 to $7. Definitely something other than UTI is at play here.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 19:25:45 GMT

So, on 8/5 my score was 761. The next day, it dropped to 750 because my US Bank card reported a UTI of 68%. On 8/11 it went up to 754 with the only noticeable difference of a card no longer reporting the $4 balance it had. Then today, it dropped to 738, with the only noticeable difference of the card I mentioned in the OP no longer reporting a balance. Can you be "punished" for letting a card report a high balance for too long? Because that is the only thing I can think of that would be an issue. But my overall UTI has not changed since the 6th (11%, up from 8%).

Re: Odd Experian score drop

SouthJamaica — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 19:42:46 GMT

@aircobra wrote:
So, on 8/5 my score was 761. The next day, it dropped to 750 because my US Bank card reported a UTI of 68%. On 8/11 it went up to 754 with the only noticeable difference of a card no longer reporting the $4 balance it had. Then today, it dropped to 738, with the only noticeable difference of the card I mentioned in the OP no longer reporting a balance. Can you be "punished" for letting a card report a high balance for too long? Because that is the only thing I can think of that would be an issue. But my overall UTI has not changed since the 6th (11%, up from 8%).

No you can't be.

Something, other than the drop from $7 to $0, must have reported on 8/13 which wasn't there on 8/11. You just have to look harder

(Some candidates for hard-to-notice events: new scorable inquiry, past inquiry becoming scorable, old account dropping off of report)

Re: Odd Experian score drop

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 22:08:39 GMT

Something else definitely changed on your report and caused the score shift.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:18:25 GMT

Well, I feel really dumb because I cannot find anything different on my report from the past couple days. I even waited until this morning to see if something got added. Nothing. No negative items, no new inquiries. All balances are the same. I am really confused at this drop.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:34:40 GMT

Could be something like an old account falling off too.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:38:28 GMT

11 open accounts, 4 closed accounts. Been that way for 5 months (last time I opened a new account).

Re: Odd Experian score drop

BallBounces — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 17:48:32 GMT

Have you signed up for Experian Boost?

Is every account mentioned a revolving account?

Re: Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 18:23:47 GMT

I signed up about a month or so ago. It didn't boost my score at the time. I removed the 2 accounts reporting, to see if anything would change, and it didn't.

Yes. 7 credit cards. 4 retail cards.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 23:53:39 GMT

@aircobra wrote:
11 open accounts, 4 closed accounts. Been that way for 5 months (last time I opened a new account).

Even with the same exact accounts present age of accounts factors can change if the dates on the accounts change for some reason, so it's always good to go back through each account to ensure accurate reporting.

Re: Odd Experian score drop

aircobra — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 04:10:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@aircobra wrote:
11 open accounts, 4 closed accounts. Been that way for 5 months (last time I opened a new account).
Even with the same exact accounts present age of accounts factors can change if the dates on the accounts change for some reason, so it's always good to go back through each account to ensure accurate reporting.

They're all reporting the same open dates as they have been. Everything else reported looks the same (I compared reporting for each account 8/14 and 8/8). This is going to drive me crazy until my score goes back up