Every other month my score drops 30 or so points (800 -> 770, approx.) for no apparent reason, then goes back up the next month. No new accounts, inquiries, or anything that I can think of. I never carry a balance, always pay in full. My total available credit is almost $90k and I rarely even get close to using 5% of that. The only thing I can possibly identify as the culprit is that I will usually approach 15-20% utilization on my Chase Amazon, which has a low limit of $2k (my oldest card, never got a CLI). But I thought single card utilization doesn't affect scores? Anyway, maybe there is something else causing this I haven't thought of?
@pizzadude wrote:Individual card utilization is most definitely a FICO scoring factor, along with aggregate utilization.
Your reported revolving balances are likely the cause of this.
Thank you. How should I prevent this? Pay down cards mid statement?
@1LostArk wrote:
@pizzadude wrote:Individual card utilization is most definitely a FICO scoring factor, along with aggregate utilization.
Your reported revolving balances are likely the cause of this.
Thank you. How should I prevent this? Pay down cards mid statement?
I agree with pizzadude. But if you insist on optimization, then yes, pay down mid-cycle to your desired util level. I'd suggest <8.9%.
@1LostArk wrote:Every other month my score drops 30 or so points (800 -> 770, approx.) for no apparent reason, then goes back up the next month. No new accounts, inquiries, or anything that I can think of. I never carry a balance, always pay in full. My total available credit is almost $90k and I rarely even get close to using 5% of that. The only thing I can possibly identify as the culprit is that I will usually approach 15-20% utilization on my Chase Amazon, which has a low limit of $2k (my oldest card, never got a CLI). But I thought single card utilization doesn't affect scores? Anyway, maybe there is something else causing this I haven't thought of?
To what score are you referring?
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@1LostArk wrote:Every other month my score drops 30 or so points (800 -> 770, approx.) for no apparent reason, then goes back up the next month. No new accounts, inquiries, or anything that I can think of. I never carry a balance, always pay in full. My total available credit is almost $90k and I rarely even get close to using 5% of that. The only thing I can possibly identify as the culprit is that I will usually approach 15-20% utilization on my Chase Amazon, which has a low limit of $2k (my oldest card, never got a CLI). But I thought single card utilization doesn't affect scores? Anyway, maybe there is something else causing this I haven't thought of?
To what score are you referring?
Experian, from experian.com
@1LostArk wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@1LostArk wrote:Every other month my score drops 30 or so points (800 -> 770, approx.) for no apparent reason, then goes back up the next month. No new accounts, inquiries, or anything that I can think of. I never carry a balance, always pay in full. My total available credit is almost $90k and I rarely even get close to using 5% of that. The only thing I can possibly identify as the culprit is that I will usually approach 15-20% utilization on my Chase Amazon, which has a low limit of $2k (my oldest card, never got a CLI). But I thought single card utilization doesn't affect scores? Anyway, maybe there is something else causing this I haven't thought of?
To what score are you referring?
Experian, from experian.com
The FICO 8 from experian.com? If so, that's a reliable score. So it means there's some change between the new report and the old report. You just need to analyze the 2 reports carefully side by side to see what changed.
Individual account utilization does have an impact, but going from 5% to 20% on a single account wouldn't account for 30 points.
Maybe you're bouncing between all-zero-except-one and all-zero, thus toggling the "all zero penalty". Since Chase immediately reports a zero balance.
From my Personal DP's on Experian's Fico is that if you go to reports and scroll down in between accounts and summary there is usually a link you can click on saying your score has changed click here to see what's changed. And it breaks it all down for you. This has always been the case for me anyways.
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@SouthJamaica wrote:The FICO 8 from experian.com? If so, that's a reliable score. So it means there's some change between the new report and the old report. You just need to analyze the 2 reports carefully side by side to see what changed.
Individual account utilization does have an impact, but going from 5% to 20% on a single account wouldn't account for 30 points.
Maybe you're bouncing between all-zero-except-one and all-zero, thus toggling the "all zero penalty". Since Chase immediately reports a zero balance.
I just have all my cards set to auto pay the statement balance. I do tend to use most of my cards at least once per month, but since my statement periods are all over the place, it ends up that there's almost always a balance being reported on all my cards. Now that you mention it, I do think the times when my score is higher coincides with when a lot of my cards have a $0 statement balance. Not sure if it's worth the bother to me to micro manage, just leaving everything on auto pay and forgetting about it seems to be good enough. Next time I need a mortgage maybe just put all my spend on a single card for a couple months?