Credit drop 89 points!?!

[rhopkins1999]

Hey everyone! I have an issue and I was hoping someone could offer some advice! 

I know this is a topic for "FICO" scoring but my question is about Vantage, which I know isn't always the best. 

So I've been working on paying down debt and I paid off one of my cards that was reporting at 70% to zero. I was looking forward to a huge jump but my EQ vantage score dropped 89 points and that's the only thing that has changed. The change was reported on my FICO EX and my score hasn't moved. The only thing I can think of is even though my utilization is lower, the cards that are reporting are at 96%, 86% and 57%. Could paying off that card affect my individual utilization that much since it was reporting lower? 

I've combed through my report and I can't find anything else's that's changed. I saw this on Credit Karma, should I even worry about it since my Fico hasn't changed? 

Thank you! 

[Anonymous]

Seems to me your question is "Should I care about my Vantage score doing wild and crazy swings?"

I used to watch my vantage score swing all over just for the fun of it, but after a short while I found doing about anything else was better.

[FlaDude]

While the Vantage score drop is curious, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. Did your TU score drop on CK too?

Since you still have maxed out credit cards I wouldn't expect much Fico score increase, maybe a few points for overall Util % dropping. If you need score improvement in the short term, work on getting all cards below 89%, and then 69%. If you are not planning to apply for new credit soon, I would focus on doing what's finacially best and pay down highest interest rates first.

[FicoMike0]

First, sorry about your situation.

To get help from the experts, you need to list complete details. Clearly, paying an account from 70% to zero didn't tank your scores, something else is going on.

If you still have an account reporting over 89%, that's a huge score hit. There's a penalty for your highest utilization account and you didn't help that issue. You're also tempting balance chasing, which you won't like. 

Id suggest quite looking at scores until you get utilization under control, that's killing you. Get everything under 49% and you should see improvement.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Better to take all highly utilized cards to 49% UT than paying one card to $0. As long as you have cards with over 70% UT, you are at risk for triggering balance chasing. Once started, the chasing could continue until CL has dropped 50% or even 90%. 

As far as the VantageScore drop, none of us know the true cause. However, reducing utilization is not the reason.