40 point drop?? What did I do wrong?

[manzanita]

So a few weeks ago, after cleaning up some issues on my report, my score shot up to 692 from 618. I had removed an erroneous collection and had myself removed as  an auth user on a bad credit card acct.

My goal was to add some more open revolving credit, so I took advantage of my new higher score and applied and got a West Elm/Comenity card with a credit line of 4000. When the inquiry showed up, my score dropped to 677. Bummer, but not unexpected. Then, when the acct actually hit my file, it dropped another 20 pts to 658.

My only other open card is a Cap 1 Plat with an 800 limit, which is "maxed out" at 705.  I also have a closed Orchard Bank Card and a closed Chase card, with balances of 807 and 706 respectively. The balances on these have only gotten lower in the interim.

Here are the weighted items side by side from the two reports:

    Accts w/ Delinquency    Utilization    Bad Payment History    Accts with Balances    AAoA    Currently Past Due    Inquiries
692         3                               47%                        3                              14                        7 yrs              1                             1
658         3                               24%                        3                              14                        7 yrs              0                             2

As you can see, the difference between these reports is the addition of the acct - which did not seem to change my AAoA and it only helped my Util. I knew my score would go down from the inquiry, but I'm disheartened by how steep a drop it was. I was hoping that my improved payment history and lower balances PLUS the change in Util created by the new acct would give me a bump that would offset the ihit I took on the nquiry.

The only other net-negative difference between the two reports is the "Accts with Balances" appears as #3 of  4 Negatives on the Fico Scale illustration. Even though the numbers are exactly the same on both reports, it is not mentioned as a problem on the report with the 692 score. Most of my accts are installments (various student loans).

What do you all think?

[Simply827]

Your score dropped from the inquiry and lowered AAoA by adding the new account. Removing yourself as an AU also may have lowered your score by changing your utilization. It's also possible that the Cap 1 account reported as maxed out for the first time. Your previous statement balance possibly wasn't as high as it is now.

[manzanita]

Thanks for your reply.

I immediately thought of AAoA as well as that is the most obvious culprit, but it did not change my AAoA according to the power report.  My balances on the cards were all reported as lower or the same. I did use my West Elm card, but only put 175 on it (not even 5%) and still my overall utilization was cut in half, from 47 to 24%. So I'm still not clear as to why...or what do to help my score. I realize making payments will help obviously, but it still seems like an extreme drop based on what I'm seeing ... i guess my question really is - if Util is 30% of the score, and I decreased that percentage by half, shouldn't I have gotten a boost? Especially if everything else stayed the same or improved?

ETA - removing myself as an auth was factored into the 692 score, and seems to have contributed greatly to that jump.