Highest individual utilization 13% -> 20% point loss

[Anonymous]

So this is an interesting one. I used my Apple Card to purchase my new phone on Apple Card installments and Goldman reported it now. $986 balance on a $5K limit. 19.72% utilization. Experian alerted me to a score drop to 799. 

I was always under the impression that individual utilization thresholds started at 28.9% but that doesn't seem to be the case on Experian. My aggregate is less than 2% with this addition and this card having a balance only puts me at 4 out of 18 cards with a balance. I have done no credit seeking since April of this year so my profile has been pretty steadily trending up until this happened. 

Obviously I'm not upset about it, my score is still great, just posting for discussion's sake. I would have made my purchase the exact same way even knowing I would have a minor score ding. I will know the impact on the other bureaus early in January. FWIW, Vantage responded with the same score drop on TU and the only change noted was the highest utilization of an account going from 13% to 20%. 

ETA: loss was small, only 3 points. Also my CLOC counts as a revolver so with that account I have 19 accounts, not 18. 

[Curious_George2]

So you went from 3 cards with balances to 4? Do you have any open loans reporting?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So this is an interesting one. I used my Apple Card to purchase my new phone on Apple Card installments and Goldman reported it now. $986 balance on a $5K limit. 19.72% utilization. Experian alerted me to a score drop to 799. 

I was always under the impression that individual utilization thresholds started at 28.9% but that doesn't seem to be the case on Experian. My aggregate is less than 2% with this addition and this card having a balance only puts me at 4 out of 18 cards with a balance. I have done no credit seeking since April of this year so my profile has been pretty steadily trending up until this happened. 

Obviously I'm not upset about it, my score is still great, just posting for discussion's sake. I would have made my purchase the exact same way even knowing I would have a minor score ding. I will know the impact on the other bureaus early in January. FWIW, Vantage responded with the same score drop on TU and the only change noted was the highest utilization of an account going from 13% to 20%. 

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I've read your post 3 times now and still can't tell how many points you lost.

[Anonymous]

Saeren, a few things I'd look into outside of that individual card utilization change.

1 - What was your shift in aggregate utilization? (before/after)

2 - Did your number of accounts with a balance change?

3 - What were your aggregate utilization dollars (sum of reported balances) at the 13% and 20% points?

Obviously you've been around enough to know that the alert reason doesn't always have to tie to the score change provided, so I'm just looking at some different angles.

[Anonymous]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

So you went from 3 cards with balances to 4? Do you have any open loans reporting?

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Yes 3 to 4 and my SSL that's less than 9% is my only open loan. 

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So this is an interesting one. I used my Apple Card to purchase my new phone on Apple Card installments and Goldman reported it now. $986 balance on a $5K limit. 19.72% utilization. Experian alerted me to a score drop to 799. 

I was always under the impression that individual utilization thresholds started at 28.9% but that doesn't seem to be the case on Experian. My aggregate is less than 2% with this addition and this card having a balance only puts me at 4 out of 18 cards with a balance. I have done no credit seeking since April of this year so my profile has been pretty steadily trending up until this happened. 

Obviously I'm not upset about it, my score is still great, just posting for discussion's sake. I would have made my purchase the exact same way even knowing I would have a minor score ding. I will know the impact on the other bureaus early in January. FWIW, Vantage responded with the same score drop on TU and the only change noted was the highest utilization of an account going from 13% to 20%. 

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I've read your post 3 times now and still can't tell how many points you lost.

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3 points. My bad, 802 is in my signature, I didn't actually include it in the post. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Yes 3 to 4 and my SSL that's less than 9% is my only open loan. 

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And that 3 to 4 is out of how many total?  It sounds possible that the drop came from number of accounts with a balance.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Saeren, a few things I'd look into outside of that individual card utilization change.

1 - What was your shift in aggregate utilization? (before/after)

2 - Did your number of accounts with a balance change?

3 - What were your aggregate utilization dollars (sum of reported balances) at the 13% and 20% points?

Obviously you've been around enough to know that the alert reason doesn't always have to tie to the score change provided, so I'm just looking at some different angles.

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1) Aggregate utilization went up to 2% from 1%

2) Yes but only by one. This shouldn't be a ding on Experian since it's not 50% and I was already over AZEO. 

3) $499 before, $1485 after. 

I do know that the alert reason doesn't necessarily tie in with the actual reason for the score decrease but nothing else has changed and Experian alerts me as soon as my score drops under my 800 goal so it's a pretty isolated moment considering nothing else was shifting. All of my cards had already reported their balances (thanks to me lining most of my due dates up to the 21st-23rd) except this one and I didn't cross any kind of known age threshold between last month and this month. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Yes 3 to 4 and my SSL that's less than 9% is my only open loan. 

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And that 3 to 4 is out of how many total?  It sounds possible that the drop came from number of accounts with a balance.

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Out of 19. It's never been a drop before. I lose points on EQ when I hit 5 but I didn't lose points on EX up to 7 (the most I ever let report a balance at once). 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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1) Aggregate utilization went up to 2% from 1%

3) $499 before, $1485 after. 

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Two points:  First, recently in a thread a few of us (BM, Cassie, etc.) were discussing $500 being a potential dollar value threshold outside of utilization percentages.  The numbers you provided as before and after are on either side of that threshold, which could point to the answer here.  If you have the means to drop back down across that potential $500 threshold that would be interesting to see if your 3 points return.  Second, a few members here (SJ being one of them) have reported small point fluctuations when aggregate utilization changes even 1% at different single-digit values.  While I haven't personally experienced this on my profile, not that I could detect anyway, since others have I wouldn't rule it out.