How long should your credit score fluctuate with balance transfers?

[Anonymous]

I know that when you combine balances/open new accounts for BT your CS can suffer for a little while.

My question though is, how long should your score bounce up and down?

I have completed my first BTs back in Sept and have made various larger payments now compared to my normal payments before the BT.

Yet it seems like various accounts are lagging behind in reporting balances, so it appears the Credit Bureaus think in some cases I have double the debt as it thinks I have the same balance on an old card & a new card.

I just am curious when my CS should balance out as since Sept my score has been jumping up and down like 70 points down then 40 points up then 10 points down. Before the BTs I was like 720-740 but I was paying less on the principals and more to interest. Now it's giving me sometimes as low as 650-690.

I just get a kick out of the fact that I am paying off much more of my debt faster but my CS is looking more like a person doing the opposite.

[tcbofade]

Once every transfer has been completed and BOTH accounts have cut new statements AND updated to the CRA's, your scores will settle down.

As you mention, it's entirely possible that the same debt is showing up twice at any given moment while you're in the process.  If you completed all of your transfers in September, you should be about done with the score variation.

[Anonymous]

I think what also caused some fun to my CS was my old Walmart card.

I had an older closed Walmart card that I was paying off and things went weird when it changed from SYNCB to Capital One.

First it showed up as a closed and paid off account which seemed to make my CS jump like +20-25 points.

Then days later it shows back up as a closed Capital One with the same balance and seemed to lower my score again and IIRC even lower than it raised it (Think 10 points extra or so). 

[I_Love_Cards]

---

All this. 

But with the additonal caveat that if you applied for an opened a new account to do the BT, you'll take a bit of a hit for the injury and new account (and possibly AAoA).  

And another caveat that if you've put a substantial balance on your new 0% card, you may take a bit of a hit if that card is showing higher utilization % than you were previously.  

For example, I did a BT of several cards to one new card.  My previous highest single card util was 44% (at stupid interest).  The new card will report with 63% utilization (at 0%).  My overall utilization will be the same though.  

After all the balance transfers report and I'm only showing the debt in one place, I'm still going to take a hit for the new account (probably 10 pts?) plus a small hit for highest individual card utilization (probably 5-10 pts?).  Plus an inquiry (another 5-10 pts?).  

All worth it though because paying $100 in interest every month is dumb and all those points will eventually come back.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks @I_Love_Carbs!

You seem to be in the exact same boat that I was.

I calculated between about an Amazon Chase Visa, Auto Card, FNBO, & Paypal Credit, I was paying like $112 combined in interest.

Thanks to my longtime FNBO's BT offer + Citi Simplicity that interest has lowered to $28/mo right now and keeps gettting lower.

So I figured worth a temporary hit to pay almost $85 less interest immediately & make at least 2 less smaller payments.

I just figured that I would see more of a hit that slowly works itself back up compared to a bouncing up and down number that it is now.

[I_Love_Cards]

---

@tcbofade wrote:

Once every transfer has been completed and BOTH accounts have cut new statements AND updated to the CRA's, your scores will settle down.

As you mention, it's entirely possible that the same debt is showing up twice at any given moment while you're in the process.  If you completed all of your transfers in September, you should be about done with the score variation.

---

My "All this" was supposed to be in response to this but the internet is hard.  

And the bouncing is probably due to various reporting timings?  If the debt is on two cards, that's going to be a score drop (if you're crossing any utilization thresholds-in additon to the number of accounts showing a balance), then some of that will get bounced back as the cards show no balance and utilization and number of accounts with a balance goes back to where it was (not including new account/inquiry/high util on the transferred to accounts).  

[FlaDude]

Are you looking at FICO scores or Vantage? IME, Vantage scores are much more volatile and make big jumps for little reason.

[Anonymous]

I used to look mainly at Vantage but I noticed Experian 8 has me right now at 712.

Vantage seems to have me more so like 660-684.

It seems like right now neither likes the higher utilization on my FNBO & Citi Simplicity, but right now it makes the most logical sense for me to get my debt paid off quicker vs having it on 4+ cards at once.

Too bad they don't look at getting more of the principal paid off faster than utilization.

[FlaDude]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Too bad they don't look at getting more of the principal paid off faster than utilization.

---

It will show up in your scores when you actually pay down the principal sooner rather than in advance.

[Anonymous]

Agree with most of the above, EXCEPT, new account hit will be more than 10 points. More like 15-30 if your youngest revolver was less than 12 months, depending on scorecard.