What a con!!

[babbles]

So I  paid my credit card down  from $9511  two months ago and before I could get it all the way down to $0 my lender reported $1.  So now it's $0 and where I gained 38 points from experian , now I lost a whopping 25 points because it's zeroed out!!    Unscrewing believable!!  So the files want to see you with debt I guess??   I worked hard to get where Iam.  Darn it!!   So my other card has a $979 balance out of $1500 and I was going to pay it to zero so I guess  I should I leave a balance  to gain points??  

[HeavenOhio]

From your description, I'm not sure exactly what happened. If all of your balances are at zero, you'll take a substantial scoring hit, and 25 points wouldn't be out of line. If a $1 balance reports on one card, you won't have this penalty.

Some lenders forgive small balances rather than bother billing you. In those cases, they report a balance of zero to the bureaus. If you're trying to avoid the all cards at zero penalty, your balance should be at least $5 to avoid being forgiven.

The good news is that utilization surprises can be corrected very soon, meaning that there's generally no reason to be discouraged. The silver lining is that you've gotten a data point on how your score behaves under certain circumstances.

[babbles]

So navy federal reported to all three bureaus that my balance on my card dropped from $9511 to $1 and they reported that for the July statement. Then I actually had a credit balance ending my August statement which they of course reported as zero a few days ago so far to just EX.. I also have a $979 balance out of $1500 limit with USAA that I was going to pay off on the first but now I figure I’ll just pay it down a little at a time. My high limit with navy fed is 30k and a 0 Balance as I stated. appreciate the reply! . Yes it is a good data point.

[GApeachy]

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@babbles wrote:

So I  paid my credit card down  from $9511  two months ago and before I could get it all the way down to $0 my lender reported $1.  So now it's $0 and where I gained 38 points from experian , now I lost a whopping 25 points because it's zeroed out!!    Unscrewing believable!!  So the files want to see you with debt I guess??   I worked hard to get where Iam.  Darn it!!   So my other card has a $979 balance out of $1500 and I was going to pay it to zero so I guess  I should I leave a balance  to gain points??  

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 EDIT:  can you call in and ask for an "off cycle" report?

[HeavenOhio]

Pay off the card as planned. Your scoring will fall into place over the following weeks. Not paying interest and regaining grace periods beats a potential temporary stop at "all cards at zero."

[babbles]

yep, FICO just informed me EQ fell my 14 points as well!  Wonder how long it will take to get the points back?  Have two, two year inquires fallilng off next month.

[Anonymous]

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@babbles wrote:

  So the files want to see you with debt I guess??  

Yes, they want to see some balance reported. Let it report and pay it off right after so you don't pay interest.

  So my other card has a $979 balance out of $1500 and I was going to pay it to zero so I guess  I should I leave a balance  to gain points??  

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979/1500 = 65.27% utilization which will be considered as 66% by the scoring algorithms. This is really hurting your score.

Pay that card down to between $5 and $60 (4% max util) and let it report that balance with the other card at $0. You will see a huge jump in your score after the next 2 statement closings.

You can then pay that remaining small balance after the statement closing and before the due date.

[M_Smart007]

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@babbles wrote:

yep, FICO just informed me EQ fell my 14 points as well!  Wonder how long it will take to get the points back?  Have two, two year inquires fallilng off next month.

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If you are not going to apply for anything, I would'nt worry about the 14 points. Just my $0.02 worth.

[RobertEG]

Unstated in the post is whether the account was delinquent as it was being paid.

If the account was delinquent, then each reporting updates both the current balance AND the period since initial delinquency.

Thus, score changes would be affected by the increased period of delinquency, and not just the current balance/util/cards with a balance.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

If you ever pay a dime in interest you are doing it wrong.    FICO doesn't want you to "carry" a balance, it wants you to have "reported" a small balance, ideally on one revolving credit card.   If you had a $10,000 credit limit, you could run it up to $9900 and not take a score hit or pay any interest.   Example:
During the month you put $9900 on your 10K card
About three business days before your statement date pay all but $10.

Let the $10 report to the three credit bureaus.

Payof the $10 before the payment due date.

You won't pay a dime in interest and you should get the max FICO boost for AZEO.

Good luck.   And as others have said, utilization is only one point in time.   You can fix it next month.   One common problem is that charges are often pending right before the credit card statement date and they won't let you pay a pending charge.   Well when they run the statement, they update the pending charge so it's included in your reported balance.   That;'s why I stop using my cards at least three business days before statement date.

The only real FICO disasters are a reported late payment or running up balances you can't pay in full before the statement cut-off date and paying the small reported balance by the due date.