9 point EX drop with balance increase on 1 card?

[Anonymous]

My EX 08 score dropped 9 points this morning. 

Before the drop, on EX I was at AZE2 with 2 of 8 cards with a reported balance.  The 2 cards with reported balances were at 8% and 6% individual utilization, with aggregate utilization at 2%.

This morning, the card with 8% utilization reported at 23% utilization.  The other is still at 6%.  Aggregate utilization rose from 2% to 4%.

Since my number of accounts with reported balances did not change, nor did my aggregate utilization cross a threshold, it would seem the only event that could matter here is taking my individual card from 8% across the 8.9% threshold to 23%.  That being said, I was always under the impression that taking an individual card across the 8.9% threshold would not cause a score drop so long as it was still under 28.9%, assuming aggregate utilization was still within the best tier.  I've even heard of people taking a single card up to the next level, staying under 48.9% and not seeing a score drop.  Is there something obvious that I'm missing here, or have I misunderstood the topic of letting a single card report a higher balance without a score drop from my reading on this forum? 

[Anonymous]

I’m curious too. Ive been at AZEO with 1% total util and am about to let one of my cards go from 0 to 23%, resulting in two cards reporting for a 5% total utilization. 

[Anonymous]

I know TT has stated many times on this forum that he's had cards go above 8.9%, but with aggregate utilization still being a low single-digit number it hasn't resulted in a scoring penalty.  There have been plenty of others too that have also reported this.  I know in the past I've had my AZEO card report somewhere in the 8.9%-28.9% range and have not seen a penalty with aggregate utilization at 1%-3%, but I don't recall my exact current situation ever being the case where I had 2 cards reporting balances, one of which was in that range (I believe both were sub-8.9% balances). 

[Anonymous]

The statement cut date on one of my cards got moved up 2 days this month due to Feb. ending on the 28th. I PIF'd one day after statement cut, so my card reported at 51% util. I lost 26 pts on EX and 19 pts on EQ- hasn't reported on TU yet. I've never reported more than 7% util before, so I was shocked at how dramatic the drop was, but I crossed like 3 different thresholds, so...

Already tried calling to see if they would do off cycle reporting for the $0 balance, but it's a no go. Have to wait til next month-hope it reports before Penfed's QR next month.

[Anonymous]

A score drop from crossing 48.9% is expected, although how much I wouldn't know.  Your data point above though gives a good guess.

I'm still a bit stumped by the drop I received based on what I've come to learn and understand on this forum.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymouswrote:

I know TT has stated many times on this forum that he's had cards go above 8.9%, but with aggregate utilization still being a low single-digit number it hasn't resulted in a scoring penalty.  There have been plenty of others too that have also reported this.  I know in the past I've had my AZEO card report somewhere in the 8.9%-28.9% range and have not seen a penalty with aggregate utilization at 1%-3%, but I don't recall my exact current situation ever being the case where I had 2 cards reporting balances, one of which was in that range (I believe both were sub-8.9% balances). 

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Yes, many posters have allowed balances on a card to report in the 9% to 28.9% range and even the 29% to 48.9% range without a score penalty (myself included). However, other posters (such as SJ) experience a significant score penalty crossing above 29%. The signal strength (or weighting) of factors is scorecard dependent. Beyond that it's a guess as whether new accounts (under 2 years) may influence UT% penalties. My youngest account is over 6 years old so new accounts is not a factor for me at this time.

BBS - It appears you are experiencing a minor score penalty associated with a change in UT% based on your 1st post. Whether that's related to AG UT%, card UT% or even something else is hard to say. As I recall, HeavenOhio mentioned experiencing a single digit score shift in a situation like yours but, I can't recall the specifics.  Best way to validate root cause of your score shift is repeat testing above/below the hypothesized threshold. Ideally look at AG UT independent of card UT. Too bad your never got that low limit card.

[Anonymous]

I think I can rule out aggregate utilization, as that shift was only from 2% to 4% where in the past I've taken it to 5% and didn't see a scoring penalty.  I would say it's definitely related to that single card utilization moving across the 8.9% threshold, or some other threshold that may be unidentified.  The age of the card is 10 months, so it is relatively young.  I hadn't considered the age of a revolver to be a possible factor here. 

I will be reporting heavy [relative] utilization on this card for the next 2 cycles only because 1 week after those 2 cycles are up I'll be going for my second CLI on the card (once it reaches 1 year of age).  My likely reported utilization will go up from the 20's this past cycle to the 40's next cycle and then the 30's 2 cycles from now just before the CLI request.  The 40's cycle should result in me reporting a new "high balance" on the card which is one of my goals leading up to the CLI request.  What I may do in the meantime is pay to $0 my other "normal" AZEO card.  In doing so, if I see no score increase at all I would say my score ding is completely isolated to the single account I'm speaking about above being above 8.9% utilization.  It will be interesting to see next month if I see a greater scoring ding when crossing the 28.9% threshold on this trade line as well.