BEWARE! Discover dropped my CL for no reason!

[SunriseEarth]

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@AKO17 wrote:

I have 3 baddies that are 6.5 years old and 3 late pays (30 days) from 2013 and 2014 on my CapOne QS. Honestly, since 2014 I havent used my credit other than opening another CapOne card in February 2015 and the Discover in June 2015. I use the cards as desribed above and have otherwise kept my hands off of my credit. I have a 4 year old car loan that has never been late. Scores in my signature are current. They've improved with time. I have a six figure income and have no issue running up to my $1800 limit and paying it off immediately. Again, the reps I spoke to could not find a reason for the decrease once they manually reviewed my account. 

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Are any or all of those baddies COs?   If so, are they reporing balances?   That would explain why UTIL would show as "too high"

[AKO17]

No, the baddies are not factored into my utliization.

[-Cal-]

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@SunriseEarth wrote:

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@AKO17 wrote:

I just noticed that Discover DROPPED my credit limit from $1800 to $550! I opened my account in June, and have paid down to nearly a zero balance on-time each month (I let under 5% report each month). I have no idea why they would do something like this but my utilization just skyrocketed!!! Anyone have a similar experience? I'm currently holding for an account specialist because the first tier support person was perplexed.......

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Are your scores in your siggy current?   If so, you may have been a borderline approval to begin with.   If your UTIL is low, what else on your profile is dragging your scores down?   I'm guessing whatever is doing this isn't sitting well with Discover now.  

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I agree, I'm thinking it could be your scores. 

[Anonymous514]

I am quite surprised that Discover approved you with those kinds of scores. I had 720 scores across all 3 last year and I was still a borderline approval.

[BungalowMo]

To the OP...what is the notation on your reports regarding the reasons for the 600 level scores?

New/thin file?

Acct ages?

It will give the reasons on the left hand/Red side of the scale.  It tells us ALL what we need to work on.  I have them too...

[SunriseEarth]

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@AKO17 wrote:

No, the baddies are not factored into my utliization.

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Unpaid COs would factor into your UTIL.  This is why I always recommend paying/settling on COs, even if the creditor will not accept PFDs.   AFAIK, other baddies, like collections, do not factor into UTIL.  

Since Discover has taken AA, have you obtain a free copy of your CR directly from the CRA they used for your review?   

[AKO17]

Taken from all 3 bureaus:

Negative:

1. Collection on report (as noted above)*

2. Missed payment (as noted above)*

*These are absolutely the reasons why my scores still hover in the 600s. All baddies will drop no later than April of next year. Lates unfortunately are from 2013/2014 due to the tail-end of a long unemployment period.

3. Too short of a credit history (my overall average is 6 years)

Positive:

1. Established credit history

2. Shown recent use of revolving accounts

3. Balances on mortgage/non-mortgage installments are low/substantially paid off

4. You've limited the use of available credit

None of the negative or positive items have changed since I started this journey in June. Maybe it was their mistake to approve me in the first place. I'm not sure. But it was an instant approval and I've clearly shown them I can easily handle their $1800 CL. 

[AKO17]

Yes, I pulled all 3 of my credit reports today. 

[kdm31091]

Creditors do not drop limits for no reason. You may disagree with the reason but there always is one. In this case, high overall util did you in. Work on correcting that first and foremost and hopefully, you won't see this happen again. Good luck

[yfan]

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@AKO17 wrote:

The only other card I've opened this year was a Capital One card in February and it has been reporting since then. I've been gardening since I opened my Discover. I pay all of my cards down to 5% util like clockwork. I typically use this card for everything and run it up to about $1700, and pay it down about a week prior to the statement running. I use my two other cards for small purchases (maybe $40 at the most) and pay them immediately. None of my cards have reported over 5% util this year. I haven't missed a beat and am very methodical about my finances. I spoke to the EO and they took a look as well. They didn't understand the decrease and have now launched an investigation.  

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THIS may have also spooked Discover. Yes you always pay it down, but the fact remains that you are running up balances close to the CL constantly, and Discover doesn't think the rest of your profile (including the baddies) support that risk to them. For their own card, there's no difference between letting a $1700 balance report or not. They are still having to extend you that much credit at once and run the calculated risks all the same. It only matters for other cards because Discover can't see the mid-cycle balances for those.