Sorry for being long-winded on this, but I think most of you will find this INTERESTING.
I generally follow this board's advise of keeping all my credit cards at zero and allowing one to report 5% to 9%. Last month I got a little lazy and allowed interest and AF's to roll over on several of my crap cards: e.g. $6, $13, $5, etc. Worse yet, I PIF $4,100 in charges on my NFCU card last month, but paid a few hours late from the statement cut off time. Getting old I guess! Accordingly, the $4,100 ($5,000 CL) reflected on my credit report ($12,500 total CL's). YIKES! My CS's dropped 50+ points across all 3 bureaus. Down to 630 to 640 on EX and EQ and 650ish on TU (always my highest report as per below siggy).
No problem I thought, the PIF payment on NFCU will reflect on my report this month and the score drop is only temporary. Sure enough the new NFCU statement cuts this month (15th) reflecting a $9 balance. A little interest rolled over, I guess. Anyways, yesterday I get a notice from MyFico that there was a score change. I login and sure enough it says my EQ score was 716. WHAT? The highest EQ score I ever had was 690 and that was with all my cards except one reporting zero balance.
Just to push my luck a little, 
I pay the $19 and run a EX report. BINGO! That score is now at 716 as well. Coincidence? They've always been 15 to 20 points apart in the past. And, EX has ALWAYS been my lowest score never reaching above my current siggy. I am NOT complaing, BTW 
So testing my luck a little further I run a TU report as well; again always my highest score in the past. Unfortunately, my excitement comes to an abrupt END when I see a 665 score. My life long highest score is now my lowest score by 50+ points. 
I compared all 3 reports and there were no significant differences. They were all reporting pretty much the same balances on all 6 CC's. The only unique issue was 4 of my cards were still reporting the small balances previously mentioned (all lower than $20), but on all 3 reports. So my total utilization is reflecting a ridiculously low 1%... but I have 4 cards reporting a balance. You would think that's not very good for score health.
So what the hay! Any thoughts? What's wrong... or right... with this picture? Ahead of time, any insight is very much appreciated.
Current Score: EX: 718, EQ: 715, TU: 720
With the exception of significant changes in utilization, account age or the roll-off of baddies, I have given up on trying to figure out what drives the daily or weekly ups and downs in my 3 FICO scores. This used to drive me crazy, but now I just look at the past 6 months activity and forward 6 mos trending and try to achieve a reasonable goal- while still attempting to accommodate an occasional app spree!
@BackInTheSaddleAgain wrote:Sorry for being long-winded on this, but I think most of you will find this INTERESTING.
I generally follow this board's advise of keeping all my credit cards at zero and allowing one to report 5% to 9%. Last month I got a little lazy and allowed interest and AF's to roll over on several of my crap cards: e.g. $6, $13, $5, etc. Worse yet, I PIF $4,100 in charges on my NFCU card last month, but paid a few hours late from the statement cut off time. Getting old I guess! Accordingly, the $4,100 ($5,000 CL) reflected on my credit report ($12,500 total CL's). YIKES! My CS's dropped 50+ points across all 3 bureaus. Down to 630 to 640 on EX and EQ and 650ish on TU (always my highest report as per below siggy).
No problem I thought, the PIF payment on NFCU will reflect on my report this month and the score drop is only temporary. Sure enough the new NFCU statement cuts this month (15th) reflecting a $9 balance. A little interest rolled over, I guess. Anyways, yesterday I get a notice from MyFico that there was a score change. I login and sure enough it says my EQ score was 716. WHAT? The highest EQ score I ever had was 690 and that was with all my cards except one reporting zero balance.
Just to push my luck a little,
I compared all 3 reports and there were no significant differences. They were all reporting pretty much the same balances on all 6 CC's. The only unique issue was 4 of my cards were still reporting the small balances previously mentioned (all lower than $20), but on all 3 reports. So my total utilization is reflecting a ridiculously low 1%... but I have 4 cards reporting a balance. You would think that's not very good for score health.
So what the hay! Any thoughts? What's wrong... or right... with this picture? Ahead of time, any insight is very much appreciated.
Seems like you found a sweeter spot. The ideal FICO score is suppose to occur when less than half of your CCs have a posted balance; the "one card only" balance here is just a simplification of that, but with score results, YMMV, clearly.
Thanks everyone. I guess the low 663 TU score is my obvious concern. With both EQ and EX now up at 716, the TU score is either an anomaly, or they've changed their scoring model, or there is something I am not seeing in the report that is keeping it down. Eitherway, a 54 point hold-down is quite the variance and you would think it would be obvious.
Appreciated..
@SunriseEarth wrote:
@BackInTheSaddleAgain wrote:Sorry for being long-winded on this, but I think most of you will find this INTERESTING.
I generally follow this board's advise of keeping all my credit cards at zero and allowing one to report 5% to 9%. Last month I got a little lazy and allowed interest and AF's to roll over on several of my crap cards: e.g. $6, $13, $5, etc. Worse yet, I PIF $4,100 in charges on my NFCU card last month, but paid a few hours late from the statement cut off time. Getting old I guess! Accordingly, the $4,100 ($5,000 CL) reflected on my credit report ($12,500 total CL's). YIKES! My CS's dropped 50+ points across all 3 bureaus. Down to 630 to 640 on EX and EQ and 650ish on TU (always my highest report as per below siggy).
No problem I thought, the PIF payment on NFCU will reflect on my report this month and the score drop is only temporary. Sure enough the new NFCU statement cuts this month (15th) reflecting a $9 balance. A little interest rolled over, I guess. Anyways, yesterday I get a notice from MyFico that there was a score change. I login and sure enough it says my EQ score was 716. WHAT? The highest EQ score I ever had was 690 and that was with all my cards except one reporting zero balance.
Just to push my luck a little,
I compared all 3 reports and there were no significant differences. They were all reporting pretty much the same balances on all 6 CC's. The only unique issue was 4 of my cards were still reporting the small balances previously mentioned (all lower than $20), but on all 3 reports. So my total utilization is reflecting a ridiculously low 1%... but I have 4 cards reporting a balance. You would think that's not very good for score health.
So what the hay! Any thoughts? What's wrong... or right... with this picture? Ahead of time, any insight is very much appreciated.
Seems like you found a sweeter spot. The ideal FICO score is suppose to occur when less than half of your CCs have a posted balance; the "one card only" balance here is just a simplification of that, but with score results, YMMV, clearly.
FICO '04 the less than half balances worked just fine for me; FICO 8, I got a bump (admittedly small) in going from 2 cards to 1 card reporting a balance (out of 9) so as you suggest, YMMV both as an individual and on the model pulled. I'm moving more and more towards the conventional wisdom being pretty accurate rather than a gross simplification based on my own testing against my credit report at any rate, though the 1-9% on a single card doesn't appear to hold, I haven't fully tested this but I don't seem to be losing points for balances up to at least 40% on an individual card, though my aggregate utilization was <10% still.
yes, they want to see you actually USE the card. Have a little balance. $10-30 wont hurt...IT'LL ACTUALLY HELP. Watch ur score pop like popcorn...