Hi,
I am confused, I am paying down my credit cards and my balance decreased $163 and my utilization dropped 86% to 84% and I noticed a drop in both Equifax and Transunion of 3 and 4 points. Why would my score drop if I'm paying down credit cards?
Update: Turns out that my Amex platinum likely caused it to drop. Paying that card down first made it look like my limit decreased. That's the only change. I'll start by paying the other cards first then pay that one down going forward. Also I only check my scores on myfico so definitely not a vantage score.
Current Score: Eq: 726 | TU: 701 | Ex: 716
If you are citing TU and EQ scores only, that leads me to believe you are viewing your CreditKarma scores?
VantageScore scores are not relevant to the majority of lenders.
$1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores and reports at Experian or CreditCheckTotal (part of Experian). Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.
AnnualCreditReport. Free weekly 3 bureau online reports through April 2021.
@AllZero wrote:If you are citing TU and EQ scores only, that leads me to believe you are viewing your CreditKarma scores?
VantageScore scores are not relevant to the majority of lenders.
$1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores and reports at Experian or CreditCheckTotal (part of Experian). Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.
AnnualCreditReport. Free weekly 3 bureau online reports through April 2021.
@hsteacher , and as a result, few here study the ups and down of Vantage scores since they are currently used by less than 90% of lenders. Trends seem to indicate Vantage score may be gaining some traction in the last few years, but not near enough for this forum to investigate regularly.
Different algorithm (formula) to calculate a Vantage score model (offered by Credit Karma and most free sites to get a score) vs a FICO score. Credit Karma reports provide accurate information which is valuable to determine the activity on your report and when accounts report which is useful. How that translates into a score based on the formula Vantage uses is a different story. Although they are not "fake" scores as we often refer to here, they're just seldom used in lending decisions. As @AllZero notes, find out your FICO scores because often (not always) these scores vary and sometimes greatly, which makes sense with a different formula.
In addition, there are 28 different FICO scores (9 for EQ, 9 for TU and 10 for EX), one of which will likely be used by a lender you apply with and each have some tweaks that may and likely create different scores unlike the one score the Vantage model currently offers per bureau. Lots to learn there.
Keep Credit Karma for free and weekly updates to activity. But find out your FICO scores. Currently that's what matters in most lending decisions.
@hsteacher wrote:Hi,
I am confused, I am paying down my credit cards and my balance decreased $163 and my utilization dropped 86% to 84% and I noticed a drop in both Equifax and Transunion of 3 and 4 points. Why would my score drop if I'm paying down credit cards?
Your FICO scores did not go down because your utilization dropped; something else caused it.
