Score took big hit, not even carrying a balance

[Anonymous]

I spent more than usual last month because I moved into a new apartment. I put about 2k on my Citi dc card for new furniture, tv, etc.

I never put much thought anymore into paying down my balances since I have a $15k care credit card that cushions my utilization pretty well. I think altogether my available credit is around 25k. I knew my score might drop a couple points with these new purchases, but not 30!

I have since paid down the statement balances on all my cards (none were outstanding, no late payments, never have paid any interest - I just wait until near the due date to pay the full statement balance). Do you think my score will return to its 30 points higher status once it updates again?

[Dilbert934]

I think both overall utilization and single tradeline utilization play a factor.  The single utilization may have crossed a threshold.  In any event, after the payoff is reported to the CRAs you should be fine.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I spent more than usual last month because I moved into a new apartment. I put about 2k on my Citi dc card for new furniture, tv, etc.

I never put much thought anymore into paying down my balances since I have a $15k care credit card that cushions my utilization pretty well. I think altogether my available credit is around 25k. I knew my score might drop a couple points with these new purchases, but not 30!

I have since paid down the statement balances on all my cards (none were outstanding, no late payments, never have paid any interest - I just wait until near the due date to pay the full statement balance). Do you think my score will return to its 30 points higher status once it updates again?

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Both aggregate utilization and individual card utilization are scoring factors. To avoid serious point loss you should try to keep reporting balances at aggregate of 8.9% or less, and individual at 28% or less. Reported balances are usually statement balances, so paying it off at due date doesn't help you in terms of FICO score utilization.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Do you think my score will return to its 30 points higher status once it updates again?

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Credit scores are based on your credit report data at a single moment in time.  If you score was X with your profile in a certain state, then went to X - 30 points when it changed, returning your report to the original state would result in your score returning to X.  That's of course assuming nothing else changed.  If your score doesn't return to exactly X, it simply means that other [score impacting] profile data also changed... things like age of accounts increasing, for example.

[CreditInspired]

Is this a FICO score that dropped 30 points. I ask because last month I crossed the 28.9% threshold and my CK scores dropped between 44-51 pts, which means diddly squat. I quickly paid $1 to CCT to see my FICO scores. It was something like a mere 9-11 points and those bounced right back when I returned to my normal 2-3% UT.