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Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score


@Anonymous wrote:
My utilization on all three of the cards was previously over 90%. Each card is only a $300 limit.

If you have exactly 3 revolving accounts and all were at 90%+ utilization and you paid two down to $0 and dropped the last to under 8% utilization, you went from the worst possible utilization (maxed out aggregate and individual) to the best (AZEO).  Such a change would raise your score a minimum of 50-65 points IMO, with 65-80 being the most likely range and 80-95 being the top end best case scenario.  The 10-30 point simulator prediction is trash.

 

You're crossing 5 thresholds for aggregate utilization and 4 thresholds for individual card utilization.  That's huge.  All you need now is for those 3 new balances to report and then pull your FICO scores.  You can get them for $1 at credit check total if you're interested in seeing how much all 3 FICO 8's improved.

Message 11 of 18
FlaDude
Established Contributor

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score


@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone,

I recently paid my three credit cards down to 10% balance on each. According to the myFICO simulator, this should have resulted in a 10-30 point increase across the three bureaus. However, my score did not increase at all for any of the bureaus. This is my first month using myFICO - I was wondering if the scores aren’t adjusted until the monthly credit report is pulled again, or if there really wasn’t an impact for paying down these cards. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!

My understanding is that myFICO only gives new scores once a month, so you will not see the update immediately.

Scores: March 21 FICO 8: EX 810, TU 808, EQ 813
AoOA: closed: 36 years, open: 25 years; AAoA: 11.8 years
Amex Gold, Amex Green, Amex Blue, Amex ED, Amex Delta Gold, Amex Hilton Surpass, BoA Platinum Plus, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Amazon, Chase CSP, Chase United Explorer, Citi AA Plat, Sync Lowes, Sync JC Penney - total CL 145k
Loans: Chase car loan (35k/6yrs 0.9%)
Message 12 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score


@FlaDude wrote:



My understanding is that myFICO only gives new scores once a month, so you will not see the update immediately.


Depending on the membership, new reports may only come once a month (or quarterly) but new scores are given any time an "alert" is received.  A new reported balance does indeed trigger an alert, so while he may not get a new report he will get a new score to go along with the alert, which would of course take into consideration that new reported balance.

Message 13 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score

The new balances reported! Paying two down to zero and leaving one <8% really is magic! At least 40 points were added to each of the bureaus!! You guys rock!! Thanks so much for the advice. I have one other question though, not sure if I can add it on this thread or start a new one. Outside of these three cards, I have one other that I’m on an authorized user on my father’s card because my credit lines are so new. My oldest card is only a year and a half old, so he added me to a card that’s been open about 9 1/2 years and has a perfect payment record. With this card, my average account age is at almost 3 years instead of just a year and a half. Unfortunately the card is almost maxed out at 90% utilization. To get a score increase, should I remove it? Alternatively, I could pay that balance down too, but then I’m tapping into money that I’d like to use for my down payment on a car (the balance on that card is $1400 of a $1500 credit line). I’ve saved about $6000 for a down payment. Any advice on whether I should pay that one down too, leave it alone, or be removed as an authorized user? If this should be a different post altogether I can delete this question. Also, y’all, I’m a girl! Smiley Happy
Message 14 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score

The new balances reported! Paying two down to zero and leaving one <8% really is magic! At least 40 points were added to each of the bureaus!! You guys rock!! Thanks so much for the advice. Now my Fico 8 score is up in 620s for all three bureaus.
I have one other question though, not sure if I can add it on this thread or start a new one. Outside of these three cards, I have one other that I’m an authorized user on my father’s card because my credit lines are so new. My oldest card is only a year and a half old, so he added me to a card that’s been open about 9 1/2 years and has a perfect payment record. With this card, my average account age is at almost 3 years instead of just a year and a half. Unfortunately the card is almost maxed out at 90% utilization. To get a score increase, should I remove it? Alternatively, I could pay that balance down too, but then I’m tapping into money that I’d like to use for my down payment on a car (the balance on that card is $1400 of a $1500 credit line). I’ve saved about $6000 for a down payment. Any advice on whether I should pay that one down too, leave it alone, or be removed as an authorized user? If this should be a different post altogether I can delete this question. Also, y’all, I’m a girl! Smiley Happy
Message 15 of 18
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score


@Anonymous wrote:
The new balances reported! Paying two down to zero and leaving one <8% really is magic! At least 40 points were added to each of the bureaus!! You guys rock!! Thanks so much for the advice. I have one other question though, not sure if I can add it on this thread or start a new one. Outside of these three cards, I have one other that I’m on an authorized user on my father’s card because my credit lines are so new. My oldest card is only a year and a half old, so he added me to a card that’s been open about 9 1/2 years and has a perfect payment record. With this card, my average account age is at almost 3 years instead of just a year and a half. Unfortunately the card is almost maxed out at 90% utilization. To get a score increase, should I remove it? Alternatively, I could pay that balance down too, but then I’m tapping into money that I’d like to use for my down payment on a car (the balance on that card is $1400 of a $1500 credit line). I’ve saved about $6000 for a down payment. Any advice on whether I should pay that one down too, leave it alone, or be removed as an authorized user? If this should be a different post altogether I can delete this question. Also, y’all, I’m a girl! Smiley Happy

Yeah you should get rid of it.

 

 


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

Message 16 of 18
Sevenfeet
Regular Contributor

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score

Aggregate vs. individual card utilization is an interesting game to play.  My wife and I have been paying down our cards thanks an inheritance and a renewed focus on clearing out our debt before our kids enter college in 5 years.  Thanks to this board, years ago we got our card limits up to an aggregate $156K and then due to life issues ended up spending them up to 77% util.  During this time we have never been late on a payment (going back 18 years).  But the utilization and inability to pay down anything slowly chipped away at our numbers where they where the Equifax Fico score dipped to a low of 645 five years ago with the Experian score at 685 two years ago (the longest the data goes back).  Transunion never dipped below 700.

 

Now we've paid off all our cards except for Citi (util 60%), Penfed (util 87%) and Chase Freedom (util 98%).  But the overall util is now sitting at 37% which means we've crossed over a number of thresholds.  The last two paid cards haven't reported to Equifax yet but the scores are now 742 (Eq), 749 (Tu) and 754 (Ex), up from 700-705 just this past January before we could make the large lump payments.  And these are numbers still with two cards with very high utilizations.  All three of these numbers are personal highs.

 

The Chase's low interest rate has made paying it down less a priority compared to other cards but I can see a reason based on the information here to get it down to below 89% at least while we pay off other stuff.  Citi will be paid completely according to our plan by August 1st.  Then the plan was to turn to Penfed and finally to Chase.  With some luck and discipline, all of them should be paid off by 2022 if not sooner.  If I read the estimates for utilization in the other threads, I figure there are another 50-60 points to unlock if we can get everything down to less to 8.9%.

 

In the meantime, I'll probably try to CLI a few of them I think we can approach in order to get the aggregate utilization down further.  Discover, BofA, Citi and Fidelity are prime targets.

Message 17 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Paying down three credit cards had no impact on my score


@Sevenfeet wrote:

 

...I figure there are another 50-60 points to unlock if we can get everything down to less to 8.9%.

 


Not a bad estimate.  I'd say you'd grab 30 points from your 2 aggregate utilization threshold-crossings and another 15 from taking your highest individual card maxed out to ideal.  That's 45 points.  From there to me it would come down to number of accounts with balances, where if you're at a high number/percentage now and take 2-3 of them to $0, you could easily scoop up another 5-10 points.

Message 18 of 18
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