Overlimit alert - TU

[betterdays2011]

Checking My FICO this morning, I was surprised to find that one of my scores (TU) had fallen 9 points.  There was an overlimit alert. I was over my limit my $8 two weeks ago for one day when a medical provider charged the card by mistake instead of billing my flexible spending card as I requested.  I am not over the limit now.  

Two questions:  how closely do the alerts we get correlate to a score change?  I was wondering if this is the reason or if there is something else I am not seeing.  I haven't ever been dinged for being over the limit before.  Thanks in advance for your help.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe there's any scoring penalty related to being over a limit relative to being maxed out.  For example, if you're at a $900 balance on a $1000 limit (90% utilization) and you make another charge and your balance ends up at $1008 (over limit) I wouldn't think you'd see a score ding from that.

What was your utilization prior?  If you were sitting at a $400 balance here (40% utilization) and a charge took you up to $1008 and it reported, you'd be over your limit, but the score ding you'd see would be related from going from 40% utilization to maxed out utilization, not simply because you were over your limit.  Hopefully that makes sense.

Being over your limit resulted in an alert which then provided you with a new score.  The new score may have absolutely nothing to do with that alert, that is, being over your limit.

If the charge got reversed and your balance is now back down to a better place, you may want to call the creditor and request an off-cycle reporting of your new balance.  That way you aren't over your limit any longer on your credit report, which is of course going to be a better look for anyone that may be taking a peek.  Whether or not it would impact your scores at all depends on your utilization before and after as I mentioned already above.

[Anonymous]

I definitely got around a 9 point ding for going over the limit with one card.( high utilization on all individuals and overall before and after). Dropped from over 100 to 90 something and got those points back.

I only had an EX score to go on though.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to hear other opinions and data points on this, as I've never heard of over limit impacting score. 

Couldn't it be possible that taking your balance over your limit increased your aggregate utilization enough to cause the score drop?

[betterdays2011]

Thanks for all the feedback. My gut tells me the score drop was related to that increase also raising my overall utilization rather than the temporary overlimit situation. I will see how things play out the the next time the creditors report. I will let you know what happens.

[Anonymous]

Sounds good, I appreciate your data on this, as it's a topic rarely talked about with respect to scoring.

[Anonymous]

To properly answer OP's question 1, alerts from myfico do not necessarily correspond to score changes. Many other threads have sorted that out.

But to follow up with data points (for science) for my profile at least...

@BBS regarding my score, yes that would be a valid question, but not my reason for score change. I wanted to say originally it was a 9-15 point change but I was at work and couldn't double check. I actually went from 623 down to 607. More data Tomorrow, but I went went from 92-93 overall util and all cards stayed above 80% individual. Two days difference in the middle of month, no aging involved, no hps or derogs added. It also stuck around till the that card reported under Max the next month.

Others input would be more than welcome.

Also, 90% sure I was overlimit before on a different card and didn't notice the ding but i will look more tomorrow.