Equifax is weird.

[Anonymous]

Just got an email alert that an account that has been inactive for 3 months has become active and my Eq score dropped 4 pts.
I put a 18 dollar charge on my Chase Amazon. Cant beleive my score dropped over 18 dollar charge,or is it because of another credit line being used?

[Thomas_Thumb]

The $$ amount is inconsequential from a UT% and that is not impacting your score.

The impact comes from an increase in the # open accounts reporting a balance. Test it yourself by increasing/decreasing # accounts reporting a balance while keeping aggregate utilization "in the same threshold range - say 1% to 9% or 10% to 19%.

In general, I view month to month score fluctuations of +/- 9 or less as noise - unless you are planning to apply for a loan or re-finance.

If you need to maximize score, best to report a balance on only one open CC account. Otherwise, you can just PIF monthly balances on time  and don't worry about micro-managing what shows on a statement. Score drops associated with high # cards reporting or high UT % are point in time and self healing as soon as you reduce # reporting or UT%.

[Anonymous]

Kinda figured it had something to do with number of accounts reporting. My utilization is only 14% but I have 4 of 5 cc reporting a balance. The 18 dollars made it 5 of 5. I paid the acct off as soon as it reported so will gain it back next month. Also paid another off so should see a small bump next month in scores.
Thanks for replying, I've only just started taking my credit seriously in May and it's definitely a learning experience, the ins and outs of credit.