Why Did this happen to my score?

[kynative]

Hey guys,

I'm a bit baffled.  At the end of July, my FICO score tanked 59 points (according to Scorewatch)  The stated reason was this:

The balance on one of your accounts has increased by 37%

This was a card that I use on occasion (Target) and it went from a $100 balance to a $137 balance (on a $200 limit card).

I have since paid that off, but my score has never recovered from the hit  Why is that?  I don't quite understand the reasoning for tanking a score that many points to begin with... and then not recovering those points when the balance reverted to $0.

Any thoughts?  Do I need to do some sort of dispute?  This is a significant drop and since I am looking for cars at the moment - it doesn't help me!

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

The reason noted may not be the actual reason for the score drop. It could just be what triggered the alert. Have you pulled a complete report to see if anything else has changed?

[jamie123]

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@kynative wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm a bit baffled.  At the end of July, my FICO score tanked 59 points (according to Scorewatch)  The stated reason was this:

The balance on one of your accounts has increased by 37%

This was a card that I use on occasion (Target) and it went from a $100 balance to a $137 balance (on a $200 limit card).

I have since paid that off, but my score has never recovered from the hit  Why is that?  I don't quite understand the reasoning for tanking a score that many points to begin with... and then not recovering those points when the balance reverted to $0.

Any thoughts?  Do I need to do some sort of dispute?  This is a significant drop and since I am looking for cars at the moment - it doesn't help me!

Thanks!!

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You need to join CreditKarma.com. Don't worry it's free! CreditKarma will give you your TU and EQ reports for free and update them once a week. Look at your reports and find out if a new baddie might have appeared.

The scores that CreditKarma will give you are FAKOS and are not to be trusted but the reports are very accurate.

[kynative]

Thanks guys.  I had purchased the 3 reports here at MyFico.  Just didn't see anything else during that time period  I will have to have a better look again, maybe I am just missing something.  Still frustrating, though!  I have worked hard over the years to get myself out from under a 520 credit score (yeah, that was not a mistype)... I was just at the verge of 700 when this happened.

[krielly]

you say you have since paid this off. Do you mean the $37, or the entire balance?

if you paid the entire balance, are you at a 0 balance now on all credit cards? you take a hit for reporting "0" utilization across all revolving accounts......