Dropped 6 points because I paid something off

[demi]

Of course, the balances are not correct, because they don't reflect the current payment, but they show about 9500, 6 cards still with balances.  Its about 8300 now, with 5 cards.  My Equifax moved me from the negative colummn to the positive for being under 30%, so I don't think its utilization.   Just frustrating....maybe just a temporary thing.  Nothing has dropped.   The other possibility is that the hard pulls might not have shown up on the earlier Experian...I will check that.  It only dropped two points on the Equifax and went up more since then, before it dropped !!!  Guess it really is a mystery how it all works !

[demi]

The mystery of this continues to perplex me.  I have gone thru both Decembers and the current report, the only difference between the two:

My history went up from 17 to 18 years of credit history

A total of 1,100 less in revolving credit, at total of 10,521 remaining (which is completely incorrect, more like $8,200, but late reporting)

7 accounts with balances instead of 8 (although 2 more have been paid off)

I would think all of these would help to raise, not lower.  The difference in the comment section, I used to have 3 negatives, now I have 4 - Serious delinguency, multiple accounts showing missed payments, heavy use of revolving credit, the new one is You have missed payments on credit accounts.  Many of these seem duplicative, but I am assuming these in themselves have nothing to do with the scoring, they are just explanations.

This is starting to freak me out.....I just was informed they will be starting construction on my new house beginning of March, they will need to pull my reports again towards the end of construction.  I am hoping this is some "burp" in the system, but now I am wondering if my clean up I would like to do (make sure 0 balances report instead of "not on file" and disputing 26 90 lates on Spiegel (every month while I was paying it off, even though it was in a debt managment plan, this is only on Experian) might do more harm than good.

Message Edited by demi on 01-17-2008 04:28 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

I got re-bucketed when I added an AU card and my oldest account went to 18 years. You went from 17 to 18 years. I wonder if 18 is a magic number to trigger a new bucket?

FWIW, my scores recovered in 3-6 weeks after the new bucket, and they're now way beyond where they were. It's been not quite 3 months now. Scary when you're on a tight schedule, though.

Do you have myFICO's Scorewatch?

[demi]

Yep, got score watch.....thats how I found out about the 6 points. Thanks

[haulingthescoreup]

I got this message on Bucket Day:

Your FICO® score went down on a day when there were no credit alerts on your Equifax Credit Report™. This can happen if:

* You moved from one category of credit users to another as time passed. For example, you may have transitioned from the category "consumers with a new credit history" to the category "consumers with a two- to five-year credit history". As a result, your credit report is evaluated differently, causing a slight change in your score. The good news is that moving between categories like this usually offers you the potential to reach a higher FICO® score in the future.

I wondered if you had gotten this message at some point.

There are more things that change bucket assignments than age of credit --I know that presence or absence of a BK is one, for example, and there are others. If this had happened to you, it would re-set your scores and start you off with a new credit peer group. Just thinking out loud.

[demi]

Nothing has aged off, no Bk's, in dmp about 7 to 8 months to paying off. No statements whatsoever to explain it on my scorewatch. I am from what you wrote earlier it has to be rebucketing....hopefully goes up, or at least none of the three go down...for now my middle score is in the 680's.....

[demi]

OK, just looked at my score watch alert again...and account was paid of, and there is a note that it was closed by grantor....perhaps that caused it ?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@demi wrote:
OK, just looked at my score watch alert again...and account was paid of, and there is a note that it was closed by grantor....perhaps that caused it ?

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My understanding is that "closed by grantor" doesn't affect scoring, although if incorrect, it should be cleaned up for any future manual review. I would think that it shouldn't have hurt, unless it were your only installment account, for instance. But I think we need others to jump in on this, since it was a problem account that was paid off.

[Anonymous]

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demi wrote:

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.

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Did not read the rest of the posts but I just got a SW alert and my score had INCREASED by 9 points. The only thing that changed was that one of my balances increased by about $250.

Go figure!

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Did not read the rest of the posts but I just got a SW alert and my score had INCREASED by 9 points. The only thing that changed was that one of my balances increased by about $250.

Go figure!

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I know that the myFICO statisticians probably think that they're hot stuff, but I swear, this is just one or maybe two levels above staring at chicken entrails, trying to predict the future!