Cards are paid, why are my scores so low?

[Anonymous]

I have never posted on  anything  like this and  do not know if i can even  get the reply, lol but I have a question.. I want to know why  if i have pai all my credit cards off and  now have only  1, why is my  fico score so low:? please can anyone help me?


edited to change post title. This was split off from "Too many cards?" over on CC to begin its own post.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 05-18-2009 07:11 AM

[llecs]

Do you have any bad accounts reporting?

How many open CCs do you have?

If you have open CCs now, what is the utilization?

With the CCs you paid off, are they still open?

Finally, where did you get your scores from and, if open to sharing, what are your scores?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, love2bamom, welcome to the forums!

If you paid your cards off and closed them, you hurt yourself. For good credit scores, you need to have several lenders reporting accounts that you are managing well.

Now you only have one card, it appears, and unless you pay it off before your statement posts, it's reporting a balance to the credit bureaus, making it look like you're carrying a balance, even if you might not be.

Did you pull your FICO scores? Not "credit scores" sold to the unknowing by credit monitoring services, etc. For instance if you have an Experian score, it's not a legit FICO score unless you got it from a mortgage lender or one credit union in Pennsylvania. (Experian no longer allows consumers to buy our FICO scores, anywhere.) At any rate, if you bought your FICO EQ (Equifax) and TU (TransUnion) FICO scores, what are the negative factors listed on screen 2, in order? These are the top factors hurting your scores.

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

[Anonymous]

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Now you only have one card, it appears, and unless you pay it off before your statement posts, it's reporting a balance to the credit bureaus, making it look like you're carrying a balance, even if you might not be.

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So pay off credit card while the statement posted is $0.00? How many days prior to due date do they post the statement?

[FocusOnFICO]

Hauling means that it is recommended to pay down most or all of the amount due and have the payment credited before the cc statement posts.

If you have multiple cards, pay all but one off and let a small amount show on the single card.  Your utilization will be excellent.  Then remember to make a payment on that single card after the statement cuts to avoid paying any interest.

I am employing this strategy now and expect a significant bump on my scores.  I typically pay any amounts due on my non-balance reporting cards 5 days before the statements are due to cut.  This has worked out well so far.

[FocusOnFICO]

OP----if you meant that you only have a single credit card and have cancelled the rest, you would need to both use the paydown strategy listed above and also work to add more tradelines to your credit portfolio to build the score back up.

[haulingthescoreup]

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nadial88 wrote:

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Now you only have one card, it appears, and unless you pay it off before your statement posts, it's reporting a balance to the credit bureaus, making it look like you're carrying a balance, even if you might not be.

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So pay off credit card while the statement posted is $0.00? How many days prior to due date do they post the statement?

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Look at your statement, either the mailed version or the online version. The date will be on there. Sometimes it varies by a few days --Jan 24, Feb 23, Mar 26, Apr 25, for instance --so look at older ones to get a feel for the pattern.

The length of time between the statement date and the due date varies by bank. Discover gives me almost an entire month; others shorten it up considerably. That's why you need to know the actual statement dates.