Score drop after improving score factors

[Anonymous]

My FICO 8 scores have dropped about 40 points after I made some improvements, listed below.

I got one new card with a $3k limit, increasing total available credit from $6k to $9k and increasing revolving credit lines from 1 to 2

I PCed one card to a better card

I paid down my balances, moving utilization from 17% to 1%

Only 1 hard pull was used

Nothing else has changed on my reports. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My FICO 8 scores have dropped about 40 points after I made some improvements, listed below.

I got one new card with a $3k limit, increasing total available credit from $6k to $9k and increasing revolving credit lines from 1 to 2

I PCed one card to a better card

I paid down my balances, moving utilization from 17% to 1%

Only 1 hard pull was used

Nothing else has changed on my reports. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

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1. Have you compared your 3B reports from before and after to see what the differences are? That is the only way to confirm that nothing else has changed on your reports.  Sometimes, although nothing may have changed in your life, there might be a change in what is being reported.

2. If it is a fact that nothing else has changed, a 40 point drop makes no sense. Yes you lose a little for the inquiry, the decreased average age of accounts, and the newness of your most recent account, but not 40 points worth.

[medicgrrl]

Is your new card reporting yet?  Are your cards actually showing a balance on the credit report?  Verify the CL's are correct on your revolving accounts.  My points dropped and it took a day before I actually saw that I had 0 accounts reporting a balance.  Check your last reporting dates on your cc and make sure it is truly the most recent reporting date.

[Anonymous]

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@medicgrrl wrote:

Is your new card reporting yet?  Are your cards actually showing a balance on the credit report?  Verify the CL's are correct on your revolving accounts.  My points dropped and it took a day before I actually saw that I had 0 accounts reporting a balance.  Check your last reporting dates on your cc and make sure it is truly the most recent reporting date.

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Interestingly, Experian is doing what you mention here. No revolving accounts seem to be factored in at all. Tradeline for my CC shows Payment Status: "Unknown." How did you fix it? Just wait it out?

Equifax's is reporting correctly. Factors have only improved, yet my Equifax FICO has dropped 36 points. The new card isn't reporting yet.

[newhis]

I only see:

+ decrease on CC debt

- extra HP

- increase on installment debt

Maybe your installmet debt is hurting you? I don't know.

I see that debt increased $40.

Still some changes in the future:

+ increase overall CC limit

- new account 

- lower AAoA

[medicgrrl]

I saw my score drop on Experian yesterday.  Looked at my report today and finally saw the $0 balance on all my cards.  I also saw my Equifax drop but I haven't seen my cc balance update yet.  It's updated on TU and Exp so I'm pretty sure it has updated but is not showing on my report yet.  Makes no sense but is following what has happened with Exp.  Check again in the next few days and see what happens to your balances.

[medicgrrl]

Also, look at your score factors and see if something has changed there.  I'm not really seeing why Eq has dropped based on what you posted.  There may be something to help figure it out listed under the factors.  

ETA It's difficult to read, but is it showing your installment debt is higher now under the balances?

[Anonymous]

I hadn't considered that, but I do have a student loan that increases every month as interest is capitalized. Surely a $40 monthly increase on a student loan wouldn't affect much, would it?

[HeavenOhio]

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@medicgrrl wrote:
ETA It's difficult to read, but is it showing your installment debt is higher now under the balances?

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Right-click on the image, and choose View Image (or your browser's equivalent). The image is resized for posting purposes, but it's plenty big if you break out of the post and look at the image on its own.

[medicgrrl]

Im not sure how much it would affect but if you just went over a certain LTV threshold, it might.