Paid Debt Off, Score Went Down. Please Help!

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I am very good at taking care of my credit. I keep my utilization pretty low (4% on combined credit cards and 30% was the highest on one) I spend $399 on a $1350 limit for emergency purposes. I went to pay the entire balance off when it was due and lost 51pts. It wasn't late nor over my spending limit or utilization limit. It was the most I've used on that particular card but not over 30%. Why did my score drop by so many points? My credit score was 765 now its 714.

[Anonymous]

What is the source of your credit score?  Or in other words, where are you getting your score from?

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok, so I am very good at taking care of my credit. I keep my utilization pretty low (4% on combined credit cards and 30% was the highest on one) I spend $399 on a $1350 limit for emergency purposes. I went to pay the entire balance off when it was due and lost 51pts. It wasn't late nor over my spending limit or utilization limit. It was the most I've used on that particular card but not over 30%. Why did my score drop by so many points? My credit score was 765 now its 714.

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[Anonymous]

I know, not the best source but I got the score from both Credit Karma and from checking on Capital one since it's a Quicksilver card.

[Anonymous]

You need to get access to your FICO scores.  Both Credit Karma and Capital One provide Vantage Score 3.0 which are not used for lending decisions by any major lender   Also, your Vantage Score can diverge wildly from your actual FICO score especially when you have a "thin" credit file.

The simplest way to get your FICO 8 scores from all three major credit bureaus is to sign up for the $1 trial membership at CreditCheckTotal.com.  Just make sure to cancel within the one-week trial period so you aren't hit with the regular monthly membership fee.

You can also get your Experian FICO 8 score for free by signing up at creditscorecard.com/registration but of course that wouldn't tell you the scores for the other two credit reporting agencies.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I know, not the best source but I got the score from both Credit Karma and from checking on Capital one since it's a Quicksilver card.

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[Anonymous]

As others have said Credit Karma is not an accurate way of monitoring your credit score. It will fluctuate wildly over short periods of time. You can use it to monitor your credit details such as utilization, inquiries, etc but find another source to show your true FICO scores.

[sarge12]

OK...just going to throw this out there. Many do not realize, that if your purpose for increasing a credit score is to get credit card approvals and credit limit increases...you can get a score that is just too high!! Hard to believe, but if you have a credit score that is super high, credit limit increases will become very rare. Why?? I know it may seem counter-intuative, but let me explain how I and others got these very high scores. We for the most part PIF even before statements cut, and the CC issuers know that is the profile that gets us 820+ scores...Very low utilization. This also means we are not the most profitable for the issuers, as we never pay interest, and use credit mainly for rewards. For that reason we rarely get CLI's and I almost never recieve targeted pre-approvals. The issuers often target the card holders that have scores over 700, but under 800. Their most profitable customers can be obtained by targeting this group. The 800+ fico scorers represent almost no risk of default, but issuers do not make anything but transaction fees from the either. They had much rather have customers with a 2% risk of default who actually carries a balance and pays interest vs the 1% risk of default that creates little to no profit.

[sarge12]

I do want to clarify my previous post that I was talking specifically about CLI's and targeted credit card issuers like many recieve in the mail. I do not think they even can deny you a credit card approval for too high of a score. I have not been denied a card I applied for in years, and the SL is always 10k or more. The issuers just do not seek my business and deny CLI's based on the fact that I never use but a small percentage of existing credit limits.

[Anonymous]

Sarge, I agree with what you said in Post 6 above, but there are plenty of CCCs out there that hand out CLIs like candy even to those that barely use their limit... heck, even those that barely use the card or even don't use it at all.  I think it's ridiculous that this is the case, but it happens all the time.  Discover and Amex are the two examples that come to mind the quickest, where you can have a 2-digit spend or even no spend for several cycles and still receive SP CLIs bringing your limit to the $30k-$50k range.

[Anonymous]

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@AnonymousOk, so I am very good at taking care of my credit. I keep my utilization pretty low (4% on combined credit cards and 30% was the highest on one) I spend $399 on a $1350 limit for emergency purposes. I went to pay the entire balance off when it was due and lost 51pts. It wasn't late nor over my spending limit or utilization limit. It was the most I've used on that particular card but not over 30%. Why did my score drop by so many points? My credit score was 765 now its 714.

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The others have given great advice to obtain your FICO scores.  Definitely do that. 

It's 100% impossible for a FICO score to drop even 1 point and certainly not 51 if you pay down a balance yet you are still at 4% or similar single-digit aggregate revolving utilization.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Everyone!!! Was able to obtain my FICO score 9 through Wells Fargo. And FICO score 8 through Experian. Score is 765 and 748. Any reason why the scores are different eventhough they were both updated today and they are both Experian?