cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

My score dropped 20 points

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

My score dropped 20 points

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


It's impossible to answer that without knowing

(a) what date the EQ FICO score change occurred

(b) what was in your EQ report that day and

(c) what was in your EQ report the day before.

 

If all your cards reported zero balances at the same time, you would get an "all zero penalty".  The point loss would be reversed when one of the accounts reports a small balance.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 2 of 7
stw715
Regular Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


One possibility, that negative account was doormat, but when it updated recently it cause score to drop as to FICO's eyes its a brand new/newer negative account.





Message 3 of 7
Curious_George2
Valued Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@stw715 wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


One possibility, that negative account was doormat, but when it updated recently it cause score to drop as to FICO's eyes its a brand new/newer negative account.


I don't think this is correct. Dormancy is not a factor FICO takes into account. If those of us with baddies could make FICO forget about them simply by letting the aflicted card sit unused, there would be advice all over the internet to do exactly that. 

OP likely experienced the all zero penalty, as @SouthJamaica said, and perhaps lost some points due to a less diverse credit mix, if the accounts that were removed were the only ones of their kind on the report. 

Message 4 of 7
OmarGB9
Community Leader
Super Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@Curious_George2 wrote:

@stw715 wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


One possibility, that negative account was doormat, but when it updated recently it cause score to drop as to FICO's eyes its a brand new/newer negative account.


I don't think this is correct. Dormancy is not a factor FICO takes into account. If those of us with baddies could make FICO forget about them simply by letting the aflicted card sit unused, there would be advice all over the internet to do exactly that. 

OP likely experienced the all zero penalty, as @SouthJamaica said, and perhaps lost some points due to a less diverse credit mix, if the accounts that were removed were the only ones of their kind on the report. 


There's actually several DPs on here of dormant (dormant in this case meaning a negative account that hasn't been updated in years, then gets updated for whatever reason) accounts causing a score hit because the derogatory account was updated due to dispute, payment, etc. "Dormancy" may not be a FICO scoring factor, but "time since most recent negative" is. And when a "dormant" negative account that isn't regularly updating gets updated, FICO sees it as a "fresh" derogatory (even though it's obviously not), and there is a "catch up" penalty by the algorithm.


Last App: 1/10/2023
Penfed Gold Visa Card

Currently rebuilding as of 04/11/2019.

Starting FICO 8 Scores:




Current FICO 8 scores:


Message 5 of 7
FireMedic1
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


This may also be why also. These companies dipute and dispute trying to get things removed and each time it comes back verified and a new update happens. There goes some points. Post what they are working on and we are free and can help you. Dont watse your money any longer. You can do what they're doing with our help and it doesnt cost a red cent. Place what they are working on here and lets see what we can do.


Message 6 of 7
Mr_Mojo_Risin
Senior Contributor

Re: My score dropped 20 points


@FireMedic1 wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I have been working so hard for almost 2 years to rebuild my credit, and for the most part it consistently goes up, however earlier this month it dropped 20 points on Equifax !!! The thing is I did nothing wrong? I only use one of my cards and I pay it off fully or I leave a small balance before report date. I have made all my payments on time for over a year. I am currently paying for a credit repair service and they are working on getting some negative items off my credit. I do have 3 alerts here from transunion that a retail card and bank card and personal finance card was removed from my report I dropped 3 points on Transunion. Hwever for Equifax it simply says an account listed on your credit report has been updated. this is very frustrating and so confusing to understand. Any guidance as to why this happened will be appreciated.

 

 

 


This may also be why also. These companies dipute and dispute trying to get things removed and each time it comes back verified and a new update happens. There goes some points. Post what they are working on and we are free and can help you. Dont watse your money any longer. You can do what they're doing with our help and it doesnt cost a red cent. Place what they are working on here and lets see what we can do.


This is what stood out to me also "credit repair service". 

Good advice from @FireMedic1 

NFCU More Rewards 28K CL
NFCU Cash Rewards 16K CL
Citi Custom Cash 7.5K CL
AODFCU Visa Sig 5K CL
Discover IT 2.5K CL
Capital One QS 3600 CL
Message 7 of 7
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.