Confused

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I ran my FICO report for Equifax back on Dec 21, 2009.  At that time my revolving balance was $6675 and my FICO score was 686.  Since that time I have worked extremely hard at paying down my debt.  I reran my FICO report today with $5126 revolving debt.  My score went DOWN to 681.  All other aspects of my credit history have remained constant.  I haven't applied for new credit, haven't been late.  The only thing that has changed is that I paid down my balance.  

This is extremely discouraging and I don't understand what is going on.  I thought that paying off my credit cards was a good thing?  Please help!

Thanks

~Vivyan

[Anonymous]

Has the credit limit on all your accounts remained the same. Make sure by double checking both reports. No new inquiries?

[Anonymous]

No new inquiries.  It doesn't look like my limits have been lowered on my active accounts.  However, two of the balances are on closed accounts, so on those my FICO report doesn't show the credit limit, only the highest balance.  But, I closed both of those accounts months before running either report.