Credit score drops when I pay down / pay off balance

[Anonymous]

I notice sometimes when I pay down/off my credit card balances (pay on time), my credit score would drop. For example, I paid off my chase credit card balance of $87, and my score dropped by 14 points!!!!! Is that normal? Can someone help me to understand?

Thanks in advance.

[xaximus]

If you have a zero balance across all of your accounts, then your score takes a hit, let a balance report and then pay it on the due date, that should take the penalty away. Generally, an easy way to not get a penalty is to set one account to auto-pay on the due date and not worry about it. Just check in on it and make sure the payments are going.

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Thanks for the info

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting! Thanks for the info

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Also, it should be pointed out that Chase will report mid-cycle if you pay it down to zero. So if you want to let one of your accounts report a small balance when the statement cuts, don't select the Chase account for that function.