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Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

In July I paid off a $1000 CC balance, bringing the balance to $0. I've been plugging this information in to Credit Wise and Credit Karma simulators and both say this will decrease my credit score by almost 100 points. How is that possible? Wouldn't paying off CC balance result in lower utilization, thus a boost to my credit score?

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
dragontears
Senior Contributor

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?


@Anonymous wrote:

In July I paid off a $1000 CC balance, bringing the balance to $0. I've been plugging this information in to Credit Wise and Credit Karma simulators and both say this will decrease my credit score by almost 100 points. How is that possible? Wouldn't paying off CC balance result in lower utilization, thus a boost to my credit score?


1. No simulator is completely accurate, most of the time it is straight garbage or at least a wild guess at best 

2. Both credit karma and creditwise are Vantage scores so those scores are not used by the vast majority of leaders 

Message 2 of 7
Girlzilla88
Valued Contributor

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

If this is the only card you have you definitely don't want it to report 0 either, Will it drop it 100 points unlikely lol but you will get a penatly for have 0 balance on your only card.







Message 3 of 7
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?


@Anonymous wrote:

In July I paid off a $1000 CC balance, bringing the balance to $0. I've been plugging this information in to Credit Wise and Credit Karma simulators and both say this will decrease my credit score by almost 100 points. How is that possible? Wouldn't paying off CC balance result in lower utilization, thus a boost to my credit score?


We would need to know what other accounts you have, with the limit and the balance of each, to give you an idea as to what effect the payoff will have on your score.

 

As others have said, don't pay attention to the simulators.


Total revolving limits 568220 (504020 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 689 TU 691 EX 682




Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

I can't think of any circumstance when paying off a CC would result in a 100 point score drop under any scoring model.  Further proof here that scoring simulators are trash. 

Message 5 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

If simulators were accurate it would be too easy for us to reverse engineer the algorithms.

Message 6 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Simulators saying my score will decrease after paying off CC balance?

I think many people that see value in simulators had a few instances early on of them "getting it right" and continue to use them thinking they'll always get it right or close.

Message 7 of 7
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