topic Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390 in General Credit Topics

Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:26:19 GMT

I have no idea what to make of this. Nothing on my report changed, except that I paid off $390 on one of my credit cards.

This is a screenshot from Credit Karma, Transunion VantageScore 3.0

https://i.imgur.com/1d7rHsm.png

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Jnbmom — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:27:56 GMT

Its Credit Karma, you can't judge anything by them..........................................................................

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

AllZero — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:28:27 GMT

$1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 reports at Experian.com or creditchecktotal.com. Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:32:53 GMT

I disagree, I've been using my Credit Karma score as a basis to determine when to apply for credit. When my score went up to 740 on Credit Karma, I got approved for a car loan at 3% APR. Same goes for all the cards I have. Can anyone reccomend a free service that is better?

I paid off $7,000 in debt a few weeks ago, so I'll see what my score is in a few weeks once my new account balances are reported. This 50 point drop seems pretty strange.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

AllZero — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:40:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I disagree, I've been using my Credit Karma score as a basis to determine when to apply for credit. When my score went up to 740 on Credit Karma, I got approved for a car loan at 3% APR. Same goes for all the cards I have. Can anyone reccomend a free service that is better?

I paid off $7,000 in debt a few weeks ago, so I'll see what my score is in a few weeks once my new account balances are reported. This 50 point drop seems pretty strange.

Did your lender use VantageScore 3.0 to approve your auto loan? The majority of lenders use FICO.

Not free but see my post above for $1. CK and wallethub are great for credit reports, not so much for scores.

I would recommend reading the below from ABCD2199
The Truth about Credit Card Utilization
My 11 Rules to Credit Rebuilding
FICO Score: What to pay down first?

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Jnbmom — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:40:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I disagree, I've been using my Credit Karma score as a basis to determine when to apply for credit. When my score went up to 740 on Credit Karma, I got approved for a car loan at 3% APR. Same goes for all the cards I have. Can anyone reccomend a free service that is better?

I paid off $7,000 in debt a few weeks ago, so I'll see what my score is in a few weeks once my new account balances are reported. This 50 point drop seems pretty strange.

Well you would be incorrect. CK uses Vantage score 3.0 Most all lenders in this universe use FICO!! CK should only be used to monitor your credit reports only. It's free,so you get what you pay for.

While your Vantage scores may happened to be in line with your FICO, it doesn't make these scoring algorithms anything alike

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:45:25 GMT

I hope that didn't come off as too harsh, Credit Karma using a different (sh**ty) scoring system but I wouldn't say you can't judge anything. Their user interface and ability to easily see accounts and details of your credit history is very helpful. All the advertising clutter for sub-par loans and tax services is annoying though.

I just used Synchrony Bank's credit score feature and it reports 633 with TransUnion VantageScore 4.0

The score drop appears to be meaningless and Credit Karma sucks at scores.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:48:49 GMT

Did your lender use VantageScore 3.0 to approve your auto loan? The majority of lenders use FICO.

Not free but see my post above for $1. CK and wallethub are great for credit reports, not so much for scores.

Well you would be incorrect. CK uses Vantage score 3.0 Most all lenders in this universe use FICO!! CK should only be used to monitor your credit reports only. It's free,so you get what you pay for.

While your Vantage scores may happened to be in line with your FICO, it doesn't make these scoring algorithms anything alike

Thank you, that was very helpful.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

AllZero — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:55:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I hope that didn't come off as too harsh, Credit Karma using a different (sh**ty) scoring system but I wouldn't say you can't judge anything. Their user interface and ability to easily see accounts and details of your credit history is very helpful. All the advertising clutter for sub-par loans and tax services is annoying though.

I just used Synchrony Bank's credit score feature and it reports 633 with TransUnion VantageScore 4.0

The score drop appears to be meaningless and Credit Karma sucks at scores.

CK, TU, WH are great because it's free. I use them all the time. It lets me know when TU and EQ has updated. Then, I pull my actual FICO scores.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Jnbmom — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:59:26 GMT

@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I hope that didn't come off as too harsh, Credit Karma using a different (sh**ty) scoring system but I wouldn't say you can't judge anything. Their user interface and ability to easily see accounts and details of your credit history is very helpful. All the advertising clutter for sub-par loans and tax services is annoying though.

I just used Synchrony Bank's credit score feature and it reports 633 with TransUnion VantageScore 4.0

The score drop appears to be meaningless and Credit Karma sucks at scores.
CK, TU, WH are great because it's free. I use them all the time. It lets me know when TU and EQ has updated. Then, I pull my actual FICO scores.

Oh yes I use them too they are great for monitoring you just can't gauge anything with their scores when it comes to credit.

Now synchrony is really the "only" lender than I am aware of that is using Vantage 4.0 for their credir decisions, probably because it's cheaper LOL, but other than them , majority use good ole FICO and until that changes I am not putting any stock in vantage scores whether is 3.0 or 4.0.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

RickNATL — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 10:59:07 GMT

I don't put too much into CK...I use it moreso to monitor for ID Theft, balace updates, etc.(basic activites). I use the MYFICO service to monitory my true scores...CK on some whole other level that determines your score...your balance goes down, score goes down, pay off too much and the score drops again, bla bla bla...

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 11:38:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have no idea what to make of this. Nothing on my report changed, except that I paid off $390 on one of my credit cards.

This is a screenshot from Credit Karma, Transunion VantageScore 3.0

https://i.imgur.com/1d7rHsm.png

This actually happens with FICO scores too. What is happening is CK is sending you an alert and displaying whatever changes that they monitor that last happened on your report. I know it is kind of confusing but the alerts are not necessarily tied to the score change, the software just makes it look that way. For example you said you paid off $7,000 in debt. Did you pay all your CC down to zero? That will drop your score. Also there is no such thing as "nothing changed on my report". Every day things on your report age and somethings age off your report. Your report is in constant change. CK lets you see historical reports. Look at your report before the score change and after. Look for old accounts aging off.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

tricie17 — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 13:45:01 GMT

Sometimes Transunion will use a Vantage score as Fico 8 and/or they have to alter their scoring to fit into the Fico scoring system. Transunion uses this Vantage scoring regardless of the fico 8 algorithyms. I sometimes have a Vantage score populate as Fico 8 scoring on my reports and I always pull fico 8 scores. I believe this is why Transunion will drop scores when an account has shown a decrease in useage. This scoring confuses that particular Bureau causing decreases on peoples reports. Transunion needs to get with the program or check out.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

silver_idle — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 13:58:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I have no idea what to make of this. Nothing on my report changed, except that I paid off $390 on one of my credit cards.

This is a screenshot from Credit Karma, Transunion VantageScore 3.0

https://i.imgur.com/1d7rHsm.png
This actually happens with FICO scores too. What is happening is CK is sending you an alert and displaying whatever changes that they monitor that last happened on your report. I know it is kind of confusing but the alerts are not necessarily tied to the score change, the software just makes it look that way. For example you said you paid off $7,000 in debt. Did you pay all your CC down to zero? That will drop your score. Also there is no such thing as "nothing changed on my report". Every day things on your report age and somethings age off your report. Your report is in constant change. CK lets you see historical reports. Look at your report before the score change and after. Look for old accounts aging off.

This. FICO and Vantage will decrease if utilization is 0% or extremely low. This happened to me after paying off a card when my utilization was around 6% but now its 1% (or 0.55% exactly but its rounded to 1%) and this dropped my score by 12 points on average with FICO 8 across the board and by 50 points on average with vantage 3.0 (atleast with TU and EQ on CK and WH, EX vantage havent changed by much it seems). Kind of my fault since a charge didnt get included in a statement for it to be higher but not concerned. Just continued making on time payments, practice good credit habits (eg low utilization, pay in full, etc) and leave enough on your card (around $10) for it to report to the CRA so the utilization would be a tad higher, or if your credit line is higher, leave a little more to report.

Credit Karma does give a "nothing changed" but they also dont talk about the aging of accounts, which is a factor in your score. They also say its nothing because everything is done throughout the month that factors into the score (which seems to always have a major update each month depending on the report the previous month). However, I wouldnt rely on them for scoring to much as many others have stated. FICO is commonly used in the lending industry and even though Vantage is used by a small few, it doesnt really warrant paying attention to it since they are two scoring models that handles your CR data differently to determine the score.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 21:43:47 GMT

Any recent late payments?

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 23:08:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Any recent late payments?

I actually was late by 2 days on one account, it was not a "missed payment" on my credit report since it was not 30 days late. I was charged a late fee, and the balance decreased by $3 rather than the normal $30.

I forgot to enable email notifications when a payment is due which is how I normally track payments. For the last year I guess I have just been remembering without seeing an email.

Re: Score dropped 50 points, only change was a balance decrease of $390

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 23:09:18 GMT

That $3 balance decrease was reported in my Jan 25th report, and there was no score change from that.