Effect of util from 31 down to 5 - in my case disappointing

[Anonymous]

Hello all

Was at 678 end of May. Paid down cc balances so util is now below 5 (from 34 I believe?) My score only went up to 688. Disappointed, and not understanding why.

Changes? CLIs on Amex (from 1k to 3k), Amazon (not the VISA - fr 1k to 5k), got the Discover IT card (4k limit), and was denied CLI by BOA.

I see the HP on Discover - and nothing else.

Even more discouraging is that my collection won't age out for another 1.5 years; I had high hopes doing this would boost me past 700.

[Fico82]

Yea I think it had something to do with the addition of the discover card , the hard pull and the change to the age of accounts etc . Pretty sure someone with alot more experience will chime on and let you know exactly what happened.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello all

Was at 678 end of May. Paid down cc balances so util is now below 5 (from 34 I believe?) My score only went up to 688. Disappointed, and not understanding why.

Changes? CLIs on Amex (from 1k to 3k), Amazon (not the VISA - fr 1k to 5k), got the Discover IT card (4k limit), and was denied CLI by BOA.

I see the HP on Discover - and nothing else.

Even more discouraging is that my collection won't age out for another 1.5 years; I had high hopes doing this would boost me past 700.

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That collection is the reason your scores are staying relatively stagnant. You will see biggest scoring gain once your last negative is gone. 

11 points gain from reducing utilization is great, not because you gained some points, but because you have less debt.

Overall financial situation is by far more important than scores.