Help understanding Credit Score changes

[Anonymous]

Due to a mixup with my credit card payment which didn't make it in time my card balance went up from $745 to $1048. My limit is $5000 so my utilization went from 14% to 20%, I expected this to hurt my score but to my astonishment my scores changed by; EX+23 TU-1 EQ+17. Can anyone shed any light on why? Last month my balance went from $945 to $734 and my scores only changed EX no change TU +1 EQ no change.

[Anonymous]

Well is that your only card? Did it so happen to happen when old inquiries turned a year old?

[Anonymous]

Hi, thank you for the reply. Yes, it's my only credit card. I also have a revolving store credit that has been at zero balance for 3 months (I haven't used it) and a car loan that I have paid on time for the last year. Nothing has fallen off my report this month and the MYFICO a let attributed the score changes to the credit card balance change which is what I am having a hard time understanding.

[Anonymous]

Did your account age cross any "interesting" boundaries? Like 6, 12, 18 or 24 months? You get points for having a longer credit history and while none of us know exactly how that works there is some evidence it may be based on specific intervals of time.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi, thank you for the reply. Yes, it's my only credit card. I also have a revolving store credit that has been at zero balance for 3 months (I haven't used it) and a car loan that I have paid on time for the last year. Nothing has fallen off my report this month and the MYFICO a let attributed the score changes to the credit card balance change which is what I am having a hard time understanding.

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This is where a lot of people get confused about the MyFico monitoring. The alert didn't attribute the score changes to the balance increase. The balance increase was simply the trigger that caused the alert.