Why Did My Score Go Down?

[Jazee]

I have two open accounts, a 20-month old credit card and an auto loan of about the same age. No other open accounts. No collections. No hard inquiries. No new accounts. I have a couple credit card accounts I reached a settlement on about 3.5 yrs ago.  WalletHub and Credit Karma are not showing these at all on the list of things helping/hurting my credit.

I did an address change but I researched and that should have no effect.

I paid down the credit card from 80% utilization to 7%.  I am monitoring all 3 agencies (using USAA - Experian, WalletHub - TU, and Credit Karma, TU and Equifax.)

As soon as the new CC balance and address changed happened, my score dropped!  10 points on TU, and 45 points on Equifax!  My bank hasn't updated my Experian yet.

What the heck?

[Anonymous]

This isn't going to answer your question, but here's my thoughts. The scores you are looking at are vantage scores and not fico scores. As a result they are not even worth looking at.

[Jazee]

But I read somewhere more and more lenders are using Vantage scores, no?  I'm considering a new auto purchase.  I know many lenders use an Auto version of the score.  I thought it was a Vantage Auto score, can't remember for sure.  Do any sites provide auto scores instead of just general Vantage or Fico scores?

[AndySoCal]

Make sure all of you creditors have your updated address.  Settled accounts are considered derogatory

[Pikaboo-icu]

You can get your real Fico scores for $1, just cancel before the trial ends. I believe it's 7 days.

creditchecktotal

[Jazee]

As I mentioned in my original post, all that has changed, according to the credit reporting agencies, is an address change and lowering of my CC balance from 80% utilization to 7%.  The settled account is old.  I have a different billing address than my home address as I have all my mail sent to a mail scanning service. I read that having multiple addresses has no effect on your credit score.  Only that when applying for credit if you provide an address that isn't registered on your credit file as one of your current addresses it could cause an issue of issue regarding approval.

I'm just repeating the information that the credit bureaus have reported to me in conjunction with the drop in score.  Just has me scratching my head unless something changed that they are reporting has changed that affected the score?  I guess I'd have to see if I have a detailed credit report before when the score changed and compare. In absence of anything different that what has already been reported has changed, it must have something to do with the address change.

Do the credit bureaus answer questions about score changes?  I would expect not.

[Anonymous]

No, unfortunately, they do not. But like the 2 others mentioned before, the CK and WalletHub scores you are worried about are not your real FICO scores. Vantage Scores are considered FAKO scores. Those free sites such as Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and Quizzle should be used for educational purposes only. I use it just to make sure everything is running smoothly but the scores are not of importance to me. My vantage scores are actually 50 pts off from my real FICO scores. Most lenders will use FICO scores a majority of the time when they pull your credit. These would be the scores that you should be really interested in obtaining.

[Jazee]

Looks like, at least as of 2017, the majority of lenders using Vantagescore are using it for credit cards.  Only 1% of Auto Loan Lenders were using Vantagescore.  So much to learn!

I'm going to pull my FICO scores and compare the difference.

[Anonymous]

I dont think any credit card companies use VantageScores. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: And yes there is so much to learn. Just keeping on coming by and you will pick up something new every day. Dont be afraid to ask any questions. There are some awesome M Fer's here that are willing to help another achieve credit success.

[Anonymous]

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@Jazee wrote:

... I'm going to pull my FICO scores and compare the difference.

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And?