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My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

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WaterOverFire
Established Member

My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

Per Credit Karma, my credit score dropped 18 points after I paid off my car loan. Is this normal???? I would think owing less money would improve my credit!! I've been desperately doing everything I can to improve my score month after month and this just put me back at square one so it's very disheartening. At first, I thought it may be something else negative that contributed to the score dropping so much but that was the only change reported. There were even 3 hard inquiries that were dropped.

This really is disheartening because I've done everything I can to improve my score which is already low (went from 560 to 542). I have been doing everything I can to slowly improve it and now it's taken a huge hit Smiley Sad

Message 1 of 12
11 REPLIES 11
notfancy
Valued Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

Not necessarily. CK is very wonky and tends to send me updates that my score or credit report has done strange things. It also has me in the high 700s as a credit score, but my true FICOs are in my signature. I would use CK to see what is new, old, newly reporting, but ignore the score. It isn't accurate.

625 EQ FICO Current Score: 660 DCU EQ FICO/ 645 Scorewatch EQ FICO , EX FICO 664, TU FICO 737 (08/2014)
Goal Score: 700   Seedling again as of 07/29/14
Message 2 of 12
fishbjc
Senior Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

Credit Karma is a FAKO.  And remember, loans are factored differently./

Message 3 of 12
Scupra
Super Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

My CK score is a little over 40pts lower than my FICO from myFICO.

Filed BK7: 7/2012 (start score EQ 560 / TU 529) Discharge 10/2012
801 EQ FICO 06/2022
797 TU FICO 04/2022
793 EX FICO 04/2022
$30k NFCU Platinum | $30.7k NFCU cashRewards Sig | $15k NavChek | $7.1k Cap1 Quicksilver | $10k Amazon Store | $19k Cap1 VentureOne | $16k Barclay Aviator | $5k Chase Freedom | $5k Chase Sapphire Preferred | $9k Costco Visa | $20k AMEX BCE | AMEX Gold | NFCU Platinum #2 $19.3k | Apple $8.5k
Message 4 of 12
WaterOverFire
Established Member

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

I've read somewhere through search that even the scores obtained through MyFICO scores are FAKO scores and the true scores can only be obtained directly from the CB's themselves - Is that true?
I also have a subscription to MyFICO score watch and the score they gave me were pretty close to the CK scores until the big drop in CK. MyFICO now reads 33 points higher. I was fearing MyFICO will also soon reflect the major drop but from what I've noticed, CK was always a little behind in updates compared to MyFICO.
Message 5 of 12
anca21bi
Frequent Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

Credit Karma always seems to be 30-40 points less than myfico. This also seems true for others as well.
Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

The same thing happened to me, but only by 5 points. I paid off a car loan and it dropped. I'm still waiting to see what will happen on my next update Friday. My scores are way different.. CreditKarma says 583 and Myfico says 566, but two months ago when I got my credit pulled for a new truck, all my scores were in the low 600s. I'm just using these sites for the forums and to keep track that everything is being deleted that I pay. =)

Message 7 of 12
lg8302ch
Senior Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???


@anca21bi wrote:
Credit Karma always seems to be 30-40 points less than myfico. This also seems true for others as well.

not for me...CK is only 5 points difference from my TU Fico ...Smiley Happy ...CK scores are for entertainment only but use it for monitoring of TU and it is a great free service

Message 8 of 12
c4sp14nx
Valued Member

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???

"I've read somewhere through search that even the scores obtained through MyFICO scores are FAKO scores and the true scores can only be obtained directly from the CB's themselves - Is that true?"

 


I've actually kept track of this for my own scores (comparing this and other sites against "real" pulls), and MyFico is generally spot-on as regards the Equifax score. During the past year-and-a-half that I've got records on, my Equifax here has never been more than 5 points different from my "real" score -- and is usually right on the money. I've found, however, that the Experian and TransUnion scores obtained through this site are typically WAY off though -- for instance, my "real" TU score is actually 24 points higher than what is reporting here at MyFICO.

 

That said, the scores obtained here are usually much closer to reality than those at CreditKarma, CreditSesame, or Quizzle -- I find those scores to routinely be 30-40 points off.

Message 9 of 12
Scupra
Super Contributor

Re: My TransUnion Score Tanked 18 Points After Paying Off My Car Loan. Is This Normal???


@c4sp14nx wrote:

"I've read somewhere through search that even the scores obtained through MyFICO scores are FAKO scores and the true scores can only be obtained directly from the CB's themselves - Is that true?"

 


I've actually kept track of this for my own scores (comparing this and other sites against "real" pulls), and MyFico is generally spot-on as regards the Equifax score. During the past year-and-a-half that I've got records on, my Equifax here has never been more than 5 points different from my "real" score -- and is usually right on the money. I've found, however, that the Experian and TransUnion scores obtained through this site are typically WAY off though -- for instance, my "real" TU score is actually 24 points higher than what is reporting here at MyFICO.

 

That said, the scores obtained here are usually much closer to reality than those at CreditKarma, CreditSesame, or Quizzle -- I find those scores to routinely be 30-40 points off.


What do you mean your "real" TU score? The score from myFICO is a FICO score. There are many different models that lenders use. If you apply for credit somewhere and it doesn't match your myFICO score it's just because they are using a different model. By no means is the TU score obtained here not real.

Filed BK7: 7/2012 (start score EQ 560 / TU 529) Discharge 10/2012
801 EQ FICO 06/2022
797 TU FICO 04/2022
793 EX FICO 04/2022
$30k NFCU Platinum | $30.7k NFCU cashRewards Sig | $15k NavChek | $7.1k Cap1 Quicksilver | $10k Amazon Store | $19k Cap1 VentureOne | $16k Barclay Aviator | $5k Chase Freedom | $5k Chase Sapphire Preferred | $9k Costco Visa | $20k AMEX BCE | AMEX Gold | NFCU Platinum #2 $19.3k | Apple $8.5k
Message 10 of 12
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