Confused, please explain

[tianapb725]

So I paid off $4.5K in credit cards back in January.  It paid off 3 cards completely.  When I pulled my scores today my scores have dropped and I don't understand why - I thought they would have gone up!  You can see my previous scores in my signature.

Today's scores:

706TU

689EQ

Both scores were above 700 when I checked them in January.  I haven't applied for any credit and no other balances have increased.  Shouldn't they have gone up (a noticeable amount)?

[JoeBJay20]

Have the new balanced been reported yet?  What was your utilization before vs now?

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@tianapb725 wrote:

So I paid off $4.5K in credit cards back in January.  It paid off 3 cards completely.  When I pulled my scores today my scores have dropped and I don't understand why - I thought they would have gone up!  You can see my previous scores in my signature.

Today's scores:

706TU

689EQ

Both scores were above 700 when I checked them in January.  I haven't applied for any credit and no other balances have increased.  Shouldn't they have gone up (a noticeable amount)?

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[Anonymous]

Hmmm... My first thought is to ask if you're comparing apples to apples-- Your scores in January, and your scores today were both purchased from here, myFICO.com, correct?

My next thought is to ask if you've pulled your full credit report for the credit bureaus to check for any other changes? Any old accounts drop off? Did any of your current credit cards, perhaps, lower your credit limits? Any new derogs reporting? What is your total utilization now?

[tianapb725]

Yes, my scores were pulled from myfico and all of the new balances are now reported on this new report.  All of my accounts are paid as agreed and I've never paid a bill late and have no derogs.  Everything is virtually the same, nothing has fallen off as I only have a credit history that is 8 years old.

The only thing I could think of is that is on my Transunion report there were 2 Amex balances reporting even though I only have one account.  It was adding to utlization and having another account.  I called Amex and they removed it.  Utilization was at 33% in January, now at 28%.  Maybe having the "other account" removed from Transuion inadvertently affected me?

I just feel like it went completely in the opposite direction that it should have, especially EQ.

[JoeBJay20]

Well if your overall utilization only changed by 5%, then that probably wouldn't have that great of an effect on your scores.  If having that 2nd Amex account lowered your AAoA, that could also drop your scores.  It's also possible that you were rebucketed, which can cause a small change in scores.  Beyond that, go through the two reports carefully to make certain nothing has changed.

[AndySoCal]

When you compare the score reasons form the old report to the new report(s)  did any of them change? Either in order of different reason?

[tianapb725]

Nope all reasons are the same:

What’s hurting your FICO® score

You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.

You have too many credit accounts with balances.

You have too many credit accounts.

What’s helping your FICO® score

You have no missed payments on your credit accounts.

You have an established credit history.

You've shown recent use of credit cards.

I went from having 7 cards reporting balances to 4.  Oh well, guess I'll just have to wait a few months and continue paying down debt and hope that my scores rebound in the way I was hoping!

[llecs]

Were any of your cards that were paid off listed as "closed"?

[RobertEG]

I think I see where llecs is heading.

If the accounts were closed and you paid them off, you probably lost all of your CL on those cards, and thus they no longer score in your % util calcualtion.  They dont score as 0% util now, they simply dont score at all.