My EX score help!!

[luna_scout123]

Let me start by saying late 2018 i finally decided to get my credit straight after many YOUNG years of being a knucklehead and making mistakes. I opened a Cap1 300 sl discover 200 sl and first progress 200 sl to start to rebuild. I also have a auto loan in perfect one year payment history and a self lender (idk why i opened this). My score has been steadily increasing by 10 to 15 points from month to month. and then this happened.

My EX score dropped by 17 points and I have NO clue why. I logged into my membership and realized my score had dropped and tried to look for a reason why. I could not find any! There were no new inquiries nor negative accounts nor missed payments so i was lost. I called EX and the first rep sounded so dang lost about my concern so she transferred me to someone else.

Now this person was lost as well and could not tell me why my score had dropped either. then they began to give me “factors” why my score had maybe dropped. FACTORS that have always been there...? so i asked those have always been there and my score had been increasing so why has it now dropped . couldnt give me an answer.

Can any of you guys help or have gone through this before?? I have a speculation, i usually leave a very small balance on my cards, 10-15 dollars to report. this month i paid them all down to $0 thinking it would help my credit score and then my scored dropped. Could this be why? ive heard paying cards down to $0 cn hurt your score especially if your a rebuilder.

I have three carge offa in collections that have all been PAID and have been there for a while.

thanks guys!

[dragontears]

Having all cards report 0 is the cause of the score drop in your case. To the scoring algorithm it looks like you are not using them at all so it "dings" you 15-25 points (profile dependent)

[luna_scout123]

Really? i mean ive read that somewhere on here before but i thought it would look good showing i PIF but i guess not. What would you suggest as far as leaving a small balance on each card or PIF two cards and leave one with a small balance?

thanks btw

[TheBrownDaredevil]

Yes Op, never report ALL zero. Happened that to me when I was still learning about credit. Too less is bad just like too many is.
Just make sure next statement will have balance (no high UTI though) and score should climbed back up as long as there are no major changes to your credit.

[FiresOut]

Figure out 1-3% of any of your cards credit lines and have that report. Then pay it after statement cuts. You'll get the points right back and maybe a few more. FICO util has no memory.

[ScooterMcDoodlebutt]

The good thing is that FICO has no memory, so if you report a small balance on one card next month your score should jump back up...