Score drop!

[ReEducationOfAnEgoiste]

I just paid off all my credit cards after some high utilization, and my score has dropped about 20 points. WHY!?!

B/CL

$700/$1900

$1200/$3300

Multi payments in the month.

Edit and update:

In November of 2019 I had all my cards pretty much maxed out, the worst one was my American Express Gold Card. This was all because I took a dream vacation. My three main driver cards that took the blunt of this was my Chase Freedom, Discover It, and the American Express Gold Card.

By April 2020 I had the American Express card handle, and then it was time to concentrate on the other two. It took me another 9 months to fully bring all my cards down, but still using the cards in the process.

I guess another question to add to this is how long it will it take for my score to go up even if I keep the cards at AZ.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Because you were not showing current use of your credit. When all cards report zero, you experience the AZ loss. They will return when one card reports a balance that is a bankcard

[Anonymous]

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste wrote:

I just paid off all my credit cards after some high utilization in my score has dropped about 20 points. WHY!?!

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We need more information before we can comment.  You'd have to list out your starting balances/limits for your cards and then your ending balances/limits (presumably $0s). 

If someone goes from "high utilization" to AZ they shouldn't see a score loss, as the loss from the AZ penalty should be absorbed by the boost from utilization paydown, resulting in a net gain. 

For example, if someone paying down high utilization on their profile is worth 50 points, even if they take an AZ penalty of 20 points their net change [gain] would be 30 points.

[Anonymous]

That’s true they didn’t say whether they paid it off gradually or immediately from a high utilization.

[ReEducationOfAnEgoiste]

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste wrote:

I just paid off all my credit cards after some high utilization, and my score has dropped about 20 points. WHY!?!

B/CL

$700/$1900

$1200/$3300

Multi payments in the month.

Edit and update:

In November of 2019 I had all my cards pretty much maxed out, the worst one was my American Express Gold Card. This was all because I took a dream vacation. My three main driver cards that took the blunt of this was my Chase Freedom, Discover It, and the American Express Gold Card.

By April 2020 I had the American Express card handle, and then it was time to concentrate on the other two. It took me another 9 months to fully bring all my cards down, but still using the cards in the process.

I guess another question to add to this is how long it will it take for my score to go up even if I keep the cards at AZ.

Thanks

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[Anonymous]

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste wrote:

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste wrote:

I just paid off all my credit cards after some high utilization, and my score has dropped about 20 points. WHY!?!

B/CL

$700/$1900

$1200/$3300

Multi payments in the month.

Edit and update:

In November of 2019 I had all my cards pretty much maxed out, the worst one was my American Express Gold Card. This was all because I took a dream vacation. My three main driver cards that took the blunt of this was my Chase Freedom, Discover It, and the American Express Gold Card.

By April 2020 I had the American Express card handle, and then it was time to concentrate on the other two. It took me another 9 months to fully bring all my cards down, but still using the cards in the process.

I guess another question to add to this is how long it will it take for my school to go up even if I keep the cards at AZ.

Thanks

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste staying at AZ or not is not gonna change your base score. It's simply going to add or subtract that number of points when you go to AZ from AZEO back-and-forth. You can add those points back by having a small balance and if you put them all back at zero scoreable decrease again until you put a balance again. It's not gonna affect your base score, but when you want to optimize you want a small balance on one of the cards. Do you have any authorized user accounts? That can introduce additional requirements. 

[ReEducationOfAnEgoiste]

I have no authorized uses on any of my cards. I guess I will not be doing full optimization because it's easier for me just to keep the cards all zeros for me to manage my finances. With that being said all information you and the others have given me has been very helpful and useful.

Thank You

[Anonymous]

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste wrote:

I have no authorized uses on any of my cards. I guess I will not be doing full optimization because it's easier for me just to keep the cards all zeros for me to manage my finances. With that being said all information you and the others have given me has been very helpful and useful.

Thank You

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@ReEducationOfAnEgoiste glad to be of assistance. Yeah it's fine to keep them at zero, but whenever you do need a credit product and you are ready to optimize your score, simply have one bankcard with a credit limit of $31,000 report a small balance. That will give you the extra points when you need them. Any other time, it's irrelevant, unless you just like looking at the higher score.