Credit Score dropped 40 points in one day!?!?

[Anonymous]

I’m very pissed to say the least… How the heck does FICO score work? I’ve been repairing my score for the past two years raising it from low 500s to 760+… and I’ve maintained a 750+ for over six months… A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I put in an offer for a home…So far so good… last night I got an email from myFICO saying there was a change to my account…

This morning when I checked my account.. my score dropped 40 points!!! How the heck is that possible… Everything’s paid on time.. I even pulled my report to make sure it wasn’t identity theft… and I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary… so I’m confused… My accounts show a 10% overall UTIL… no late payment… last inquiry was last year in August (pulled by Wells Fargo for prequalification)…

I don’t know what to do now… who I should contact.. I really don’t want this to affect the offer my wife and I put in a couple of weeks back.. this is just frustrating.. I’m afraid the bank is going to look at the score and deny our loan… why am I to do now?

[fot1]

What was the reason on the report?

[Anonymous]

Checking the history tab...  the change was caused by

• You have too many credit cards carrying balances.
• You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit

All the cards used (AMEX, Discover and Capital One) carried a balance of $10-$50 balance just to keep it it active... and all of them have been paid off.. The only card that I use often carry a 30% util.. which I pay off in full every time the statement comes..

What pisses me off is the 40 point drop!! From the articles I've read online, a short sale only affects like 50 points... I just don't get how this works...

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Checking the history tab...  the change was caused by

• You have too many credit cards carrying balances.
• You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit

All the cards used (AMEX, Discover and Capital One) carried a balance of $10-$50 balance just to keep it it active... and all of them have been paid off.. The only card that I use often carry a 30% util.. which I pay off in full every time the statement comes..

What pisses me off is the 40 point drop!! From the articles I've read online, a short sale only affects like 50 points... I just don't get how this works...

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Was this a ScoreWatch alert?  Don't go 100% off those alerts. Pull your CR from somewhere and look for details (no, pulling your own report will never hurt your FICO). It could very well be utilization, though. Having multiple cards report a balance isn't a good thing. It hurts your score. I'd pay them down. Just use and PIF every 3-4 months to keep it active. Per the 30% utilized CC, know that this one card only reports one time per month. I'd check that balance to make sure it reflected a payoff. You can always ask your lender for a rapid rescore if reporting a balance to get your balance back.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.. the thing is all the cards are already paid off... The only reason I used those cards is to keep them active.. the only card that is currently carrying a balance is the card that I use everyday.. it has a UTIL rate of 15% for that one card, but the statement doesn't end for another 20 days or so.. and I don't owe anything on the other cards...

this is just the worst nightmare.. happening when a bank is about to look at my credit report... i really hope they look at the report and not the score... i haven't had a late payment for almost 3.5 years.. my last inquiry was almost a year ago.. there's nothing on the report that shows I'm bad with my credit...

[Anonymous]

I am far from an expert but one thing I have learned over the past few months with CC's it all comes down to when they report them.  Could it be that you had a high balance at the time of the monthly reporting by the CC company?

The reason I say this I had a 15 point jump in 1 day by just paying off a 3500 balance on a CC, which wasn't reported for 18 days after I paid it off.   This happened to be 2 days after my mortgage company pulled my scores arrggh. Wish I would have waited....

imo timing can be everything