14 point drop unexplained

[Anonymous]

For years, I have generally had a score of 850 and occasionally it would drop to 849 but about 4 months ago it has dropped down to 836 with no changes to anything on my end. No inquiries into my accounts, payments are paid in full monthly the day after receiving my bill. No changes to my spending. I am concerned about this change. I thought maybe it was an anomaly but it has not rebounded.

[Ficoproblems247]

I would go through your reports line by line and see what it is that has changed. A couple of things that come to mind to check would be one of your oldest accounts possibly aging off of your reports, affecting the AAoA/AoOA of your accounts. Also, do the math on what balances reported to see if you crossed over any utilization thresholds. There are plenty of other things that could be causing it, but without any info those are a couple of the most common and easiest to check. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the siggestion. I checked all of those after the 1st month drop. There has been nothing that has changed. All the same accounts, same usage, same payment history. It is frustrating. It's still a great score but when you spend half your life perfect it's puzzling.

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@Ficoproblems247 wrote:

I would go through your reports line by line and see what it is that has changed. A couple of things that come to mind to check would be one of your oldest accounts possibly aging off of your reports, affecting the AAoA/AoOA of your accounts. Also, do the math on what balances reported to see if you crossed over any utilization thresholds. There are plenty of other things that could be causing it, but without any info those are a couple of the most common and easiest to check. 

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[barca]

did you pay off a loan (like auto or mortgage)

did all your CC report a zero balance?

[Anonymous]

What is the source of your score?

Scores are drawn upon report data.  If the score dropped, the report data changed.  My guess would mirror the earlier response regarding an old account or accounts dropping off.

[Anonymous]

You may have noticed that you'll get a drop if you pay everything off and don't use the cards before the zero balance is reported. The date they report the balances is not necessarily the closing cycle date. So normally you could pay off your outstanding balance continue to use the cards and you would still have a small balance reported to the agencies. 

I played with this a while back and found that if you had zero balances on all your cards your score dropped. They seem to think you're not using your cards. Playing a little further I found that if I had less than $1,500 balance on the card the score would drop. That's probably a function of how often I use the card and the cards credit limit. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Playing a little further I found that if I had less than $1,500 balance on the card the score would drop. That's probably a function of how often I use the card and the cards credit limit. 

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Going from > $1500 reported on a CC to < $1500 on a CC (but more than $0) would not result in a score drop.  If you saw your score drop following this change, the drop came from a different factor other than lowering your balance.

[Anonymous]

Yeah no doubt about that. 

@Anonymous did this suspicious Score drop happen on the first of the month possibly?

[Anonymous]

I will have to look at that a little closer. I always pay them the day I get the bill, but with USPS taking so long to deliver mail the last several months I wonder if I am now hitting a different time in the reporting cycle. Literally nothing else has changed, no accounts dropped off, no loans to pay off, same credit profile. I'm just a perfectionist and after having years of a perfect score I am annoyed that I can't figure this out. LOL. Thanks for the reply.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I will have to look at that a little closer. I always pay them the day I get the bill, but with USPS taking so long to deliver mail the last several months I wonder if I am now hitting a different time in the reporting cycle. Literally nothing else has changed, no accounts dropped off, no loans to pay off, same credit profile. I'm just a perfectionist and after having years of a perfect score I am annoyed that I can't figure this out. LOL. Thanks for the reply.

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@Anonymous  many times when we have suspicious Score drops without explanation, they are scorecard reassignments. But that's typically only on the first day of the month, unless an account is added or dropped off. What is the age of your oldest account? What is the age of your youngest account and your youngest revolver? How many accounts do you have?

check that same time And maybe we can get to the bottom of it.