topic 1 point increase! (Utilization) in Understanding FICO® Scoring

1 point increase! (Utilization)

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:15:21 GMT

I have several credit cards. In an attempt to raise my score I have begun to pay them down. So I paid a 1938/2000 balance down to 17/2000 and got a 19 point increase. Then for no reason I lost 3 points. Nothing changed on my report. Then my scond pay down reported. Paid 837/900 to zero. It only gave me a 1 point increase. What gives? Did I get rebucketed? I have a chapter 13 on my report so I didn't think I would get rebucketed.

Re: 1 point increase! (Utilization)

llecs — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:40:04 GMT

Was a new FICO report purchased each time, or is this based off SW alerts?

FICO weighs overall util moreso than individual. What was the overall util change with each score change?

No rebucketing because of the BK reporting.

Re: 1 point increase! (Utilization)

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:18:08 GMT

This is based on a SW Alert. I'm waiting until all my payments and CLI report before I get a new report.

My overall reported util went from 42% to 37% with the one point increase. 53% to 42% with the 19 point increase.

Re: 1 point increase! (Utilization)

llecs — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:21:31 GMT

Couple of possibilities....

1) The $1938 balance CC was viewed as maxed and therefore paying it down, even by less than you did, removed that maxed ding and thus FICO increased by a greater amount.

2) SW alerts only throw out the latest score. It doesn't tell you specifically why your score changed; only gives ideas. For example, I once got a SW alert for +20 because I added an inquiry. Inquiries don't increase scores but it was a baddie removed that SW doesn't alert for that resulted in the increase. In other words, the +1, or the +19 if from SW alerts, is the result of one or more changes to your report. The +19 makes sense. There could be other things happening to hinder any score change on the +1.

3) +1 is actually reasonable. I once went from 89% to 1% and gained 125 on EQ FICO. Most of the points received came when util hit below 30%. Your util is still high where it's at now and you're still being dinged quite heavily (I'm assuming util is listed as a neg. reason). Five percentage points crossing into 37% likely wouldn't result in much of a gain. Now had it continued into 29%, for example, then I'd predict a nice double-digit increase.