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Hello, I am 18 months out of being discharged from BK, and started monitoring with this service over a year ago. At the time I started, I had established a secured CC, and my credit score was a 688. I now have 3 non secured CC's with small limits, and have been VERY responsible with my credit, paying balances off in full each month, and never beiong late. But according to my monitoring alerts. my score is now down to a 669. I am confused as to why my score is going down... I would think it should go up.
Thanks
Hi and welcome to the forums.
That isn't really enough information to even begin to see what is happening.
Have any long standing accounts been deleted, what is your AAoA, your utilization?
You should never let all your CC report a 0 balance. All but one needs to be reported at 0 and the other 9% or below.
Have any long standing accounts been deleted, what is your AAoA, your utilization?
No long standing accounts have been deleted. Not sure what AAoA is.
You should never let all your CC report a 0 balance. All but one needs to be reported at 0 and the other 9% or below.
I have 3 cards, and none report a 0 balance. Once is a points rewards program, and I use it the most. Since it has a low limit, I have to pay if off deveral times during the month to be able to keep using it, but I never pay interest. The other 2 are used to make one purchase each month and then paid in full.
If I had three crredit cards, I would try to just have one reporting with a balance. You don't want all three showing a balance, which might be part of the problem
AAoA is your average age of accounts.
You should let 2 of the 3 report a 0 balance and the other at 9% or below. This is for optimal FICO scoring.
Ok, thank you, but my original question was not answered. Why would my score have gone down, and how long before it goes back up?
Well, you have not mentioned HOW you are using those 3 cards you have. Yes, paying in full every month is good, and so is never paying late, but what is the actual utilization on the reporting dates? If you have been increasing those reporting balances to a higher percentage, that would actually cause your score to drop.
Edit:
you say you have small limits on all your cards. If a card has a $200 dollar limit and you would let it report a $100 balance, that is already a 50% utilization. What has your utilization been over the last couple of months?
Ok, now I get it.. Even if I pay it in full each month, if I let the statement balance get above 10% of the total amount of my card limit, this will cause a decrease in score. This may be my issue. I will watch keeping the reported balance to below 10% each month and see how that affects the score.
Thank you
You had said you don't let them report a balance. That is an issue, or could be. Just like letting them all report a balance.
Let only one card report a balance of 9% or below and pay it off before the due date to avoid interest charges.
I said I pay them in full each month, that means that whatever the statement balance is, I pay that off..