topic Re: 24 point drop when statement reported in Understanding FICO® Scoring

24 point drop when statement reported

bichonmom — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:27:53 GMT

Well, this is a real bummer. I usually pay my NFCU payment on the statement date, so that it reports a zero balance. I specifically wait until the statement date, so that I'm sure I'm paying everything and no new charges show up that report on the statment. This month, I messed up. I didn't realize that the statement date was on the weekend, and by the time I realized that on Saturday, there was no way for me to make the payment before the statement cut and reported to the CRBs.

I was expecting my FICO to drop, but this is a massive drop. I got my SW alert today, and my score dropped from 685 to 661.

My bal was just over $1200 and my CL is $2000. I pay for all of my monthly expenses that I can on here, so that I can get the 1% cash back. So, that's about 60% util on one CC. All other CCs are 0, except for $400 bal on my $2200 Barclay's card. I know the score will bounce back next month, because I'll be SURE to pay on stmt date and will definitely watch those darned weekends in the future!

I'm trying to look at this as an experiment, but still... really sad to see my score drop so significantly just from a balance reporting!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

Revelate — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:34:10 GMT

Werd, didn't you just get your two lovely Amex cards anyway?

Just fix it next month and go on with life, nothing to worry about. I've also been fiddling with reported balances, I get a EQ Beacon 5 FICO from my CU on basically the first of each month, so I zero'd out my current cards just to see: last month was a 571 at around 50% utilization we'll see if this month brings any goodies!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

bichonmom — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:39:38 GMT

Yeah. I don't think the statement had reported when I apped. According to SW, I think it reported a couple of days later. I guess I just got really lucky -- kind of. Definitely learned what NOT to do!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

bichonmom — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:43:00 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Werd, didn't you just get your two lovely Amex cards anyway?

Just fix it next month and go on with life, nothing to worry about. I've also been fiddling with reported balances, I get a EQ Beacon 5 FICO from my CU on basically the first of each month, so I zero'd out my current cards just to see: last month was a 571 at around 50% utilization we'll see if this month brings any goodies!

I kind of did the same thing in Oct/Nov. I was p-o'd at Cap One and I have 0%, so I thought, what the heck, I'll let balances report and just make min pmt for a month, to see if that might trigger a CLI. (In my dreams, maybe ) My score dropped. In Dec. I PIF both CCs and my score came back.

Based on that and this NFCU, I wouldn't be surprised if you gained a good 20 to 30 points. You might even break 600!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

Revelate — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:53:26 GMT

@bichonmom wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Werd, didn't you just get your two lovely Amex cards anyway?

Just fix it next month and go on with life, nothing to worry about. I've also been fiddling with reported balances, I get a EQ Beacon 5 FICO from my CU on basically the first of each month, so I zero'd out my current cards just to see: last month was a 571 at around 50% utilization we'll see if this month brings any goodies!
I kind of did the same thing in Oct/Nov. I was p-o'd at Cap One and I have 0%, so I thought, what the heck, I'll let balances report and just make min pmt for a month, to see if that might trigger a CLI. (In my dreams, maybe ) My score dropped. In Dec. I PIF both CCs and my score came back.

Based on that and this NFCU, I wouldn't be surprised if you gained a good 20 to 30 points. You might even break 600!

Quite possibly, I was basically at 600 according to a pull from here before I started my somewhat crazy plan to establish credit history with a whole slew of tradelines: six in total. I'm definitely not expecting anything substantially above that, maybe 610 at the outside before I get six months on my tradelines. Ah, the waiting game, how... dull.

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

vanillabean — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:17:55 GMT

I think it's an average balance thing more so than the util. DW recently lost 21 points, and her util moved up just one percentage point!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

webhopper — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 01:52:42 GMT

Haha, I opened 4 new tradelines in feb, 1 mortgage, 1 Amex, 1 chase visa platinum, 1 amazon store card

Then I put a security freeze on my files. I know my scores will tank, I'm just waiting to see how much after these new TLs report

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 01:56:09 GMT

It's all good.

At least it wasn't the DUE date that you forgot to pay by.

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

pizzadude — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 02:11:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's all good.
At least it wasn't the DUE date that you forgot to pay by.

+1. Thankfully no real damage that can't be fixed by next statement. This goes to show how significant revolving utilization is to your FICO score.

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

bichonmom — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 03:51:00 GMT

Yeah, thank goodness for that. I am constantly paranoid that I'm going to forget a due date!

One interesting tidbit: Right before my Navy CC reported, my other CU VIsa CLI reported (from $500 to $2500), so even with the Navy balance reporting, my overall avail credit still increased by about $750 ($2000 CLI - $1250 NFCU bal). And yet, because of the balance reporting my score tanked.

FICO is a strange beast!

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

pizzadude — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:12:01 GMT

@bichonmom wrote:
Yeah, thank goodness for that. I am constantly paranoid that I'm going to forget a due date!

One interesting tidbit: Right before my Navy CC reported, my other CU VIsa CLI reported (from $500 to $2500), so even with the Navy balance reporting, my overall avail credit still increased by about $750 ($2000 CLI - $1250 NFCU bal). And yet, because of the balance reporting my score tanked.

FICO is a strange beast!

Indeed. Having high utilization, either aggregate or on a single card, will result in a FICO scoring hit.

Re: 24 point drop when statement reported

Jazzzy — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:13:52 GMT

@bichonmom wrote:
Yeah, thank goodness for that. I am constantly paranoid that I'm going to forget a due date!

One interesting tidbit: Right before my Navy CC reported, my other CU VIsa CLI reported (from $500 to $2500), so even with the Navy balance reporting, my overall avail credit still increased by about $750 ($2000 CLI - $1250 NFCU bal). And yet, because of the balance reporting my score tanked.

FICO is a strange beast!

Some CRAs are more sensitive than others to the number of balances reporting. I am carrying balances now, which I seldom do...but I was able to get some great offers. I brought the reporting from 7 or 8 cards down to 3 cards. I show approx. the same utilization, but my score has jumped over 50 points. I have had better luck showing utilization on fewer cards, even if a couple of those cards were close to maxed. As I have paid them down, my scores continue to rise. For me, the number of balances reporting is important as well as the utilization percentage.