TransUnion dropped 14 points!

[Anonymous]

Hello!

As you can see in m siggy, I have a Macy*s card and a Bloomingdale's card, those are my only store cards. My cl for Macy*s is $3.5k and the cl does report all the CRAs. I recently let my balance of $167.96 post on my Macy*s card, and to dramatic effect. My Equifax decreased by 5 points and TransUnion decreased by 14 points (no word from Experian yet). I was wondering if this is normal? I am still under 10% util so why would I take such a huge hit? Does reporting my store card as a "charge account" (even though the cl is reported accurately) factor into why I received such a blow to my scores? I am very confused and worried that it will take months for me to recover from this. 

Yes I have paid the balance off! I just didn't get paid until a few days after the statement cut. 

[Anonymous]

Its a case of 'your mileage may vary'. There is no single, exact, written in stone amount that maximizes *every* score. For most people the 'magic' UTI% is somewhere between 0 and 9% of one cards CL. Since UTI has no memory, you can experiment each month by leaving a different amount and find out what *your* magic number is.

FWIW, I'd hardly consider 5 and 14 points a 'dramatic' drop.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Its a case of 'your mileage may vary'. There is no single, exact, written in stone amount that maximizes *every* score. For most people the 'magic' UTI% is somewhere between 0 and 9% of one cards CL. Since UTI has no memory, you can experiment each month by leaving a different amount and find out what *your* magic number is.

FWIW, I'd hardly consider 5 and 14 points a 'dramatic' drop.

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I am actually not looking for a way to "maximize" my score or find a percentage that benefits me the most, I am simply trying to find if it is normal for my score to drop (imho) so much after reporting a 4.8% util on that card. I thank you for sheading some light and trying to help. 

[NRB525]

OP, how long is your CC, and overall credit history? If not many years, then balance changes, "newly reported balances", may have a bigger effect than you would like.

You should also watch next month when this card reports again, then update your experience here. Based on other alarmed postings from high-FICO-flyers, I will wager you get all of those points back. FICO is not a stable score, it is a dynamic algorithm that can be pushed around by semingly small events. A small balance appearing like this is one of those shocks to the algorithm, and won't last long.

[Anonymous]

Okay thanks! 

I have had my Macy*s card for 9.5 years and my AAOA (recently took a hit due to 2 new cards) is 6 years. AMEX and RC are the two cards I have added this month, Bloomingdale's is just shy of 3 years old, Citi is 10.2 years old, and Capital One is the same age as Macy*s.

I have not had a balance report on the card since the beginning of the year. I have to note that I did not start tracking my FICO scores until 11/12/14, so I do not know if this is a regular occurance whenever I let a balance report. I just have to make a note to self that I cannot let a balance report if I plan on doing any apping within the next 31 days. 

For some reason Macy*s takes a week to report balance to CRA, so I will have to wait until mid January.