Big score increase with credit limit DECREASE

[PhinPhin]

Another puzzler for us.

Partner's Comenity Bank store card credit limit decreased from lack of use (50%). Carries a $0 balance every month. Utilization across all cards between 0-6% each month (never more than 6% on an individual card). Today, her FICO8 score jumped 34 whopping points with the only change being the decreased CL.

There is a lot of information out there about how a credit limit INCREASE can boost scores due to utilizations going down. That's great and all, but how is it that a DECREASED credit limit has boosted her score?

Thanks as always for the insights.

[TheKid2]

My experience is that you can't trust the CMS alerts as the only source of "what changed". I don't see how a CLD would impact scores in any positive way so you'd need to look at and compare the latest report from a previous report in detail. FICO 8 reason codes before and after would potentially offer some insight.

[Anonymous]

its possible if the card has been idle.  the change in limit made the card show activity.  

[SouthJamaica]

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@PhinPhin wrote:

Another puzzler for us.

Partner's Comenity Bank store card credit limit decreased from lack of use (50%). Carries a $0 balance every month. Utilization across all cards between 0-6% each month (never more than 6% on an individual card). Today, her FICO8 score jumped 34 whopping points with the only change being the decreased CL.

There is a lot of information out there about how a credit limit INCREASE can boost scores due to utilizations going down. That's great and all, but how is it that a DECREASED credit limit has boosted her score?

Thanks as always for the insights.

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The credit limit decrease did not cause the score increase. Something else caused it.

[Anonymous]

Activity is an alert setting in a CMS front end. It’s not believed to affect score.

The decrease definitely did not cause your increase. You need to scrutinize the credit report for other changes.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

its possible if the card has been idle.  the change in limit made the card show activity.  

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There isn't any metric of that type in FICO 8 of that nature that would result in a score change. There are no points given or taken away for "activity" on a card.