Utilization and Score

[Anonymous]

Yesterday my Util went from 17% to 14% and my Experian score went from 615 to 621 which was my highest score (YAY!). Then, today, util  went from 14% to 7% and my score dropped back down to 616.   Why??? Nothing else changed.  At this time in my re-building, every point is an uphill battle and a victory.  To lose 5 of them for no apparent reason just....is baffling.

On the flip side, my EXP score went up 6 pts with the same balance updates and THAT Is a huge milestone since it put me (FINALLY) at 600. That score has barely moved since October, and now has gone up 27 pts in 3 weeks.    

My TU score also went up 5 points with the same changes and is now my highest at 622.  Sooo close to that 640 mark that is my next goal.  

Anyone else get a feeling of dread in their stomach when they get the myFico score update notification or it just me?  I pretty much drop whatever I am doing to check it as soon as the notice pops up.

[kjm79]

Unless you decreased your UTIL to 0% decreasing your UTIL is not the cause of a score drop. Something else caused the score change and the only way to determine what that is is to pull new a report and compare line by line to the last report. Could be an old account fell off which changes the length of credit history or AAoA. You wouldn't be alerted to that happening.

MyFico is a trigger based reporting system. Certain triggers alert you to changes on your report. But not every change on your report triggers an alert. You can't rely on an alert and score change to be related. Sometimes they are sometimes they're not. If your increased your UTIL and your score went down, then that would be safe to assume the alert and score change are related. But, knowing the way FICO scoring works tells you that a slight decrease in UTIL is not going to cause a score change. 

[Anonymous]

A score change that small is well within normal fluctuation tolerances for the Fico algorithm. As your files get cleaner, larger and older they will become more stable.