HUGE Drop in Credit Score! What Happened!??

[BlueHusky]

Hi all,

I consider myself to have excellent credit - never late, pay off cards every month, few inqs., etc. I monitor my score in 3 ways: CreditKarma, CreditSesame, and Walmart Credit Card free monthly FICO. For the past 1-2 years my scores have all been excellent, around 760-780 from all 3 of these sources.

I just received an alert via email saying I had lost my credit sesame "excellent" credit badge and freaked out, not understanding what happened. I logged on just now to find my credit had dropped from 763 to 717 - a 46 point drop!!

What could have happened!? I have no lates, I didn't apply for anything, I have not increased my utilization - there is absolutely nothing that could have caused this. With CreditKarma, it is possible to see what is affecting your score...but I can't find that infor with credit sesame so how can I figure out what caused this!? Any advice??

Thank you - I'm literally gearing up to apply for an auto loan THIS WEEK and wanted a great interest rate. I'm super worried now!

[Anonymous]

Maybe pull all three bureaus to make sure you dont have any new accounts you didn't open or hard inquiries you did not authorize.  I had a friend who had her identity stolen and one of the first indicators which tipped her off was a sudden drop in her FICO score due to the thief having gone on a spree of opening new accounts.

Better safe than sorry.

It could be the high utilization but I am not sure.

I know that my FICO simulator indicates that when I pay off my cards at the end of February, I will see a nearly 40 point increase and utilization does take up a big chunk of a person's fico score.

[E150GT]

how much did your util go up? Thats probably why your score went down. 

[BlueHusky]

Sorry, typo, I meant to say I have NOT increased my utilization. I just fixed that. Which company owns credit sesame?

[eviLution]

Experian.

This month I went from 745 to 698 on Credit Sesame also, but I did added a Walmart Store Card and a Express Store Card to my CC portfolio.

[thom02099]

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@BlueHusky wrote:

Hi all,

I consider myself to have excellent credit - never late, pay off cards every month, few inqs., etc. I monitor my score in 3 ways: CreditKarma, CreditSesame, and Walmart Credit Card free monthly FICO. For the past 1-2 years my scores have all been excellent, around 760-780 from all 3 of these sources.

I just received an alert via email saying I had lost my credit sesame "excellent" credit badge and freaked out, not understanding what happened. I logged on just now to find my credit had dropped from 763 to 717 - a 46 point drop!!

What could have happened!? I have no lates, I didn't apply for anything, I have not increased my utilization - there is absolutely nothing that could have caused this. With CreditKarma, it is possible to see what is affecting your score...but I can't find that infor with credit sesame so how can I figure out what caused this!? Any advice??

Thank you - I'm literally gearing up to apply for an auto loan THIS WEEK and wanted a great interest rate. I'm super worried now!

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Rather than relying on FAKO's, which can be notoriously inaccurate,  buy the reports here at MYFICO.  That will, hopefully, give you some piece of mind.  You'll get your EQ and TU scores.  Also, go direct to the Experian site and spring for a report there as well.  Yes, it's a FAKO too, but you can compare that report with CreditSesame to see what's going on, and you'll actually see the full report, rather than the synopsis the CS gives you.  I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in CS as to accuracy. 

[BlueHusky]

Walmart is a real FICO though, and it's been in line with both CS and CK, all around 760 or 770..

[Anonymous]

You're freaking out over a FAKO.

People here are saying to buy your FICO from MyFico.com... which IMO is good advice.

[Swapmeet]

You ask the question: why is my credit score dropping 50 points? You go on to tell us that you have done none of the things that are known to lower scores. The answer is not with one of us. It is in your credit report. If you want the answers, don't settle for one of our opinions or guesses -- get the definite answer from your credit report. Right?

[Anonymous]

As people have already said...

Credit Sesame and Credit Karma are both FAKO's which are nothing like real Fico scores AT ALL. I highly recommend that you forget everything you know about those two services and get your FICO from 2 places only - Here and at Walmart.

Then, grab a copy of your credit reports and see what has changed. Only you can see what has changed. Look at balances. Look at dates. Make sure you're looking at all 3 bureaus. Maybe a collection account showed up. The only person who will know that is you.