FICO Drops not commensurate with expectations

[Anonymous]

I recently opened an account for Citi and used up 90% of its CL.  I got nailed by FICO to the tune of 15 points downwards.  What gives?  I am only recently climbing back out of this hole. 

I am at 615 was 655 at one point.  I am getting the feeling that unless I keep bugging the banks to update my credit bureaus following significant payments they do not update the bureaus and the score lingers in the dungeon.  What can be done to have the bureaurs udpated by my cc companies?  I am getting fedup with the slow move upwards but fast downward drops with no clear indicaton.  The FICO score keeper is not being very useful to me at this time.

[marty56]

It seems to me that certian CCCs (GEMB comes to mind) tend to skip a month or 2 when you dont have a balance.  I paid off my Chevron card in it took almost 2 months from the date that I PIF for it to report. CCCs are not obligated to report each month.

What is yourt util now?  Best results happend when its below 10%.

[Anonymous]

You also need to remember the FICO takes individual and overall utilization into accounts in scoring- 

90% UTL on one account- and only losing 15 points is great.

[Anonymous]

FICO only wants to see small activity and minimal use. You are scored more on what you don't use than what you do use if that makes sense.

As far as updating payments. Yea, I hear ya. I try to time all my payments to hit before the closing date so it reports the payment faster.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 05-10-2008 01:25 PM

[Anonymous]

Figure out when all of your CC's report and when the statement cuts. Make sure there is a very small bal at the statement date, let that report to the CR's and start charging and paying off again. It is all about timing.