Dropped 6 points because I paid something off

[demi]

Will never figure it out !!!  Direct Merchants bank reported pay off to zero, so my score dumped six points, from 684 to 678.  Won't kill me, but since house finincing will be coming up again in next few months, irritating.  Makes me wonder if I should be disputing another account which does not show as paid off.

[Anonymous]

DM was an installment account? If so, the drop may be due to you no longer having an installment account - goes to mix of credit.

[demi]

Actually, its a regular credit card.  Weird.  Still listed as open as well.

[Anonymous]

Oh, it's a cc. Leave a small balnce on the cc. Something between 3-5%. FICO does not like to see zero balances. Zero balances actually hurts your score.

Weird, hu?

[MidnightVoice]

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cobra19 wrote:

Oh, it's a cc. Leave a small balnce on the cc. Something between 3-5%. FICO does not like to see zero balances. Zero balances actually hurts your score.

Weird, hu?

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Well, they also say they do not like a lot of balances - I have had a

You have too many credit accounts with balances

Your FICO score considers the number of accounts you have with balances. For credit cards, even if you pay them off in full each month, your credit report may still show a balance on those cards. The total balance on your last statement is generally the amount that is shown on your credit report.

What to do about this: You should consider reducing the number of your accounts that carry a balance and keeping your balances low.

And this with 3-5% Utilization

[demi]

Can't leave a balance, I am in a dmp and they are pretty much on the way to getting paid off.  But I did go below the 30%, so my score did increase for a few days last month, will see what happens.  I am not sure what they are basing the 30% on, because I have already paid off about 45,000, and  only 8,000 left.  Some of my accounts show closed, some don't, which is probably helping me. 19 accounts, down to 5 with balances. 

What is also funny is I went from last month in my "helping" columm that I had a long history of credit, now its in my "what may be hurting" columm, short credit history (18 years).  Guess since I went under 30%, they just had to find something else to pick on!

If these scores dump lower, I will be very upset...in process of buying a house, which is not under construction yet, so they will have to run my scores again in a few months.

[haulingthescoreup]

Do you have any revolving credit outside of your CMP? If so, let that be the card that reports a balance.

But I guess I'm a little confused --surely your DMP doesn't have you playing the timing game of paying before the statement drops, does it? There ought to be something reporting. Or was this your last remaining card with a balance due? If so, congrats, sounds like graduation is near!

[demi]

Its just too weird...all of revolving (which is the only debt I have) is under the dmp.  This was a payoff from a month ago, dmp makes payments the first few days of the month, but I have found most don't get reported for several weeks.  About 8,000 left that I owe.   Only other hits in recent months have been for hard pulls applying for a mortgage, which hasn't gone thru because the house has not started construction YET!  My score has been steadly improving as things are paid off, and they still all show, so its not like I lost some of my age.  Oh well, the FICO mystery...just hope it doesn't keep happening, cause I want to at least keep them above 680 for the mortgage, which they will pull about 2 months before the house is done....I was dreaming for 700.

[demi]

EEK's, even worse, just checked experian, it went down in a month from 681 to 667.  UGH. 

[haulingthescoreup]

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@demi wrote:

EEK's, even worse, just checked experian, it went down in a month from 681 to 667. UGH.

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demi, when you look at the new EX report, what balances show on each account? They can't possibly all be showing as $0, or you would be done with the program. If you have a couple of cards reporting balances, and maybe a couple with $0, you shouldn't be seeing these score drops.

Make sure that all your CL's are the same as they used to be. If a CCC dropped your CL, your util would go up, even while you were still paying down. There has to be something going on...