Score dropped 77 points for paying off two credit cards

[Anonymous]

Hi, I checked my credit today since recently I've been paying off all of my debt I have in my name. I was doing good and then I saw -77 points on credit karma under transunion. Equifax is 100 points above trans now. I went to see what changes and all it shows is I paid one credit card to 0% and the other to 4% I didn't close the accounts I just paid the balance. Is this an error in transunion? Very confused. Thanks in advance.

[AllZero]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, I checked my credit today since recently I've been paying off all of my debt I have in my name. I was doing good and then I saw -77 points on credit karma under transunion. Equifax is 100 points above trans now. I went to see what changes and all it shows is I paid one credit card to 0% and the other to 4% I didn't close the accounts I just paid the balance. Is this an error in transunion? Very confused. Thanks in advance.

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@Anonymous  Welcome to myFICO forum.

I would recommend following your FICO scores. VantageScore scores are not used by the majority of lenders for credit decisions.

Free or $1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores and reports at Experian or CreditCheckTotal (part of Experian). Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.

AnnualCreditReport. Free weekly 3 bureau online reports through April 2021.

Free credit reports (disregard the VantageScore 3.0 score) at:
Credit Karma for weekly TU and EQ reports.
WalletHub for daily TU report.

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, I checked my credit today since recently I've been paying off all of my debt I have in my name. I was doing good and then I saw -77 points on credit karma under transunion. Equifax is 100 points above trans now. I went to see what changes and all it shows is I paid one credit card to 0% and the other to 4% I didn't close the accounts I just paid the balance. Is this an error in transunion? Very confused. Thanks in advance.

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In all reality you cannot go by Vantage scores they are all over the place. You would want to use Fico scores as stated above by the previous poster. It is not an error by TU. Few lenders even consider Vantage scores when making credit decisions.

[RobertEG]

Was the account delinquent when you paid down the balance?

If so, then the update required with the CRA to report the new $0 balance also effectively terminated but updated the total period since initial delinquency on the debt, effectively increasing the negative impact on payment histry scoring of the account.

The decrease in % util was thus likely not the only scoring impact.

[etex]

Hi all,

The one free weekly credit pulls from each of the bureaus on annual credit report has been extended another year.  

have a great day!

[Anonymous]

Did the credit card that was paid off in your name or were you an authorized user? Do you have any other credit card accounts?

[Anonymous]

No it was my card. All cards have been paid as agreed for years. Wasn't behind on it. I have multiple credit cards. Haven't cancelled any yet just paid them all off, have about 8 or 9 and I paid all of them completely off the past 2 weeks

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did the credit card that was paid off in your name or were you an authorized user? Do you have any other credit card accounts?

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did the credit card that was paid off in your name or were you an authorized user? Do you have any other credit card accounts?

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[OmarGB9]

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@Anonymous wrote:

No it was my card. All cards have been paid as agreed for years. Wasn't behind on it. I have multiple credit cards. Haven't cancelled any yet just paid them all off, have about 8 or 9 and I paid all of them completely off the past 2 weeks

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did the credit card that was paid off in your name or were you an authorized user? Do you have any other credit card accounts?

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did the credit card that was paid off in your name or were you an authorized user? Do you have any other credit card accounts?

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Well the first issue is relying on the Credit Karma score. Don't do that because no lenders really use their Vantage 3.0 scoring model.

Secondly, having all cards with zero balance hits you with an "all-zero" penalty. You need to have one card show a small, $10-$20 balance.

[Anonymous]

I paid them all off but some do still show balances as they haven't been reported yet. But I have been using my normal two cards for rewards so I will have small balances on two cards once all report.

[Anonymous]

I had a similar experience with credit karma, paid $5k extra payment on my car note and it took a huge dump on my vantage score. 

I quit looking at there numbers as it is hogwash. 

I use the scoring here and it seems pretty close.