@Vulcan1600 wrote:Thinking out loud here.....
During April I had a mini-app spree and got some really nice cards and CL. Before the new cards started reporting, as of 5/2 my EQ: 803 TU:813 and EX:786. Today they are EQ: 786 TU: 796 and EX: 786, so they did take a hit for sure. One thing I foolishly did was let my cards report with balances. I think the fact they were new and reported balances shook up the CRAs and hence the score dropped. I paid off the balances after they reported before the due dates, however it shows 3% utilization of credit where the prior month was <1%. I have 5 cards that are going to close within the next 10 days, and they will all report $0, and I will be back to about 1% utilization (I have a HD card that has $1k of $10k available for a riding mower I bought last month). With utilization down to 1% again since the cards are going to report $0, should I expect to see the scores climb back up at or a bit over 800 in the next few weeks?
Using rewards cards to pay my bills instead of my debit card is fairly new to me and I want to get back to pre-app spree levels. Is this a good plan?
Honestly your scores are so high I wouldn't worry about it overly much. 15-20 points isn't a massive drop when you're at that strata anyway... though since you're in an analysis mindset, I'd certainly like to know what your AAOA was pre spree, what it is now post spree, and then compare your scores when you have your report pretty again and see what can be gleaned from your application spree penalty. I guess how many inquiries landed on each bureau would be handy too heh, interesting that your EX didn't budge.
As a credit optimization plan, you're doing fine with that one; and from a financial plan, I highly recommend running one's entire expenditure through CC's where possible personally. You're doing just fine 
.
So, in general, you have 800 scores. You did the app spree, and those new INQ are what hit your score. The utilization may have a small effect, but I would guess the INQ are the culprit to the declines.
Only time is going to fade the INQ, but at the same time, your file is adding months of good payment history, so it continues to rise anyway.
If you want to keep 800 scores, you should stop hitting your file over the head with INQ The utilization, at the levels you speak of, are probably not an issue at all (or at least not discernible from the effect of the INQ)
@NRB525 wrote:So, in general, you have 800 scores. You did the app spree, and those new INQ are what hit your score. The utilization may have a small effect, but I would guess the INQ are the culprit to the declines.
Only time is going to fade the INQ, but at the same time, your file is adding months of good payment history, so it continues to rise anyway.
If you want to keep 800 scores, you should stop hitting your file over the head with INQ
Not sure, on FICO 8 even I lose points with much lower scores with cards reporting even trivial balances. Going from 1 to 4-5/9 cards reporting a balance is something like a 7-9 point drop for me at 700ish FICO 8. Seems to vary a bit by bureau but the resolution isn't all that good on EX and TU if you don't have substantial balance swings... which I don't unfortunately for testing purposes.
The inquiries is what brought the scores down. I check mine all the time. The new cc's reporting actually raised my score a bit. And EX stood the same. No change at all. I think once the other cc's start reporting zero balance, your scores will go back up. 
@Revelate wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:So, in general, you have 800 scores. You did the app spree, and those new INQ are what hit your score. The utilization may have a small effect, but I would guess the INQ are the culprit to the declines.
Only time is going to fade the INQ, but at the same time, your file is adding months of good payment history, so it continues to rise anyway.
If you want to keep 800 scores, you should stop hitting your file over the head with INQ
Not sure, on FICO 8 even I lose points with much lower scores with cards reporting even trivial balances. Going from 1 to 4-5/9 cards reporting a balance is something like a 7-9 point drop for me at 700ish FICO 8. Seems to vary a bit by bureau but the resolution isn't all that good on EX and TU if you don't have substantial balance swings... which I don't unfortunately for testing purposes.
My point was, OP utilization (and likely yours as well) is so low overall that the utilization isn't likely to be the culprit.
Whether the increase in number of cards reporting balances is from a brand new card, or "taking on new debt" by letting an existing card begin reporting a balance where it had zero for a string of months before, this is one of the arguments I make against forcing cards to zero balance for long periods of time: By letting the cards report their natural usage balance, the score knows they are there, and adjusts over time. If you consistently let 5 cards report small balances month after month, and keep the same low utilization, I think the score is going to recover from that shock of "new debt" that appeared. Not exactly all those points, but the substantial majority of them. Plus it's hella easier to do than pay before statement cut. Just set up the card to do autopayment of the prior balance and it's done.
What is the follow on if you let those 5 cards report consistently for 3 months?
@NRB525 wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:So, in general, you have 800 scores. You did the app spree, and those new INQ are what hit your score. The utilization may have a small effect, but I would guess the INQ are the culprit to the declines.
Only time is going to fade the INQ, but at the same time, your file is adding months of good payment history, so it continues to rise anyway.
If you want to keep 800 scores, you should stop hitting your file over the head with INQ
Not sure, on FICO 8 even I lose points with much lower scores with cards reporting even trivial balances. Going from 1 to 4-5/9 cards reporting a balance is something like a 7-9 point drop for me at 700ish FICO 8. Seems to vary a bit by bureau but the resolution isn't all that good on EX and TU if you don't have substantial balance swings... which I don't unfortunately for testing purposes.
My point was, OP utilization (and likely yours as well) is so low overall that the utilization isn't likely to be the culprit.
Whether the increase in number of cards reporting balances is from a brand new card, or "taking on new debt" by letting an existing card begin reporting a balance where it had zero for a string of months before, this is one of the arguments I make against forcing cards to zero balance for long periods of time: By letting the cards report their natural usage balance, the score knows they are there, and adjusts over time. If you consistently let 5 cards report small balances month after month, and keep the same low utilization, I think the score is going to recover from that shock of "new debt" that appeared. Not exactly all those points, but the substantial majority of them. Plus it's hella easier to do than pay before statement cut. Just set up the card to do autopayment of the prior balance and it's done.
What is the follow on if you let those 5 cards report consistently for 3 months?
Oh no you're absolutely right on that one and I thought I suggested that earlier but I may not have (or probably not done it well regardless); however, utilization is different than number of cards with balances - lgch09342 lost a slew of points just by letting $1 report on all of her cards from her 800ish score, it is a real calculation and it can hurt especially with clean files where anything wrong is magnified than where I sit credit strata wise. Two different calculations altogether even though it all falls under "revolving utilization."
I've never noticedbthat "inactive" cards were really ever a factor for me beyond getting a configurable alert (in the monitoring interface) when a card I hadn't used in a while suddenly reported a balance.
When I was doing number of cards with balances testing, it was pretty unique steps up and steps down consistently at least on Equifax. Occasionally EX went wierd on me but I'm thinking my score will be sorta flat post mortage and at that point I'll see what I can do on nailing down numbers of cards with balance on my own credit report. I'm leery of subscribing even more sophistication to the algorithm than we already know exists in this case: the score is instant in time so I find it hard to believe that it adjusts baesd on historical patterns with how balances are reported when we're talking utilization in the margins like either mine or the OP's.