Score drop due to AAoA hit

[LooksAreDeceiving]

This morning, my EX FICO 8 dropped 32 points due to one of my older TLs dropping off, bringing my file to the ripe old average age of 4 months.  Along with my healthy utilization (97% aggregate), my score is now a whopping 609.

I guess the good news is that this is as bad as it gets.

(I do find the whole tanking of scores due to util interesting, though.  I understand that FICO has to err on the side of caution, and assume that maxed cards are a sign of financial insolvency, but I wonder how any naive credit user (with likely lower limits) gets much scoring traction, even IF they do the "right thing" and PIF by the due date (but not earlier).  But then again, I guess I'm dating myself.  We're all supposed to know to PIF by statement close now, right?)

[Girlzilla88]

LOL ripe old average just wait for it to grow back to the year point it will pick back up and honestly I saw more growth when I paid a huge chunk or PIF by Payment Date and then added a few bucks before Statement.      But YMMV

[FireMedic1]

Ouch! If it was over 2 yrs and then dropped below that as you posted. Its a hit. From the consensus here its a threshold.

[Anonymous]

I would sweat the 97% utilization far more than the age factors. I know the age portion is brought up because it was the change that whacked your score, but being that high in usage is a major red flag and should be dealt with as soon as possible. It sounds as though you’re aware of that but it bears saying all the same.

[LooksAreDeceiving]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I would sweat the 97% utilization far more than the age factors. I know the age portion is brought up because it was the change that whacked your score, but being that high in usage is a major red flag and should be dealt with as soon as possible. It sounds as though you’re aware of that but it bears saying all the same.

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Yeah, I don't typically worry about util, but it's definitely currently hurting my score more than my account age.  Next cycle, I should be reporting under 8.9% aggregate, so I expect a healthy bump.  Other than that, it's just a waiting game...

[Anonymous]

Did the age of your oldest account change?