Question about Score

[Anonymous]

I've been monitoring my credit score as I attempt to pay down debt in a quick fashion.  Today I was notified that my credit score dropped two points because I decreased a bill by $60.  I'm so confused as to why my score went down when all I did was pay down a debt.  Any ideas?

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I've been monitoring my credit score as I attempt to pay down debt in a quick fashion.  Today I was notified that my credit score dropped two points because I decreased a bill by $60.  I'm so confused as to why my score went down when all I did was pay down a debt.  Any ideas?

---

1. MyFICO alerts don't use the word "because"; the event being reported and the score change are often entirely unrelated. In this case they were entirely unrelated.

2. 2 points is nothing; don't even concern yourself with such small changes, they go on all the time and are meaningless.

[Sandman771]

Yeah my Utilization increased this month from 8% to about 14% and my scores increased an average of 5 points across all three bureaus. Go figure. 

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I've been monitoring my credit score as I attempt to pay down debt in a quick fashion.  Today I was notified that my credit score dropped two points because I decreased a bill by $60.  I'm so confused as to why my score went down when all I did was pay down a debt.  Any ideas?

---

Your score wouldn't drop 2 points from a balance decreasing by $60.  The only time a balance drop can cause a score drop is if the balance drop results in ALL revolving balances being $0.  And, that score drop would be more in the 16-22 point range, not 2 points. 

[Anonymous]

---

@Sandman771 wrote:

Yeah my Utilization increased this month from 8% to about 14% and my scores increased an average of 5 points across all three bureaus. Go figure. 

---

As long as you are aware that increasing your utilization didn't cause the score increase, you're fine.  I'd say that going from 8% to 14% aggregate utilization would probably result in a score drop of 10-15 points (just guessing) so if your score went up 5 points, there's a 15-20 point positive event that went on that you haven't yet identified.