Why does Equifax lower my score every time I pay down a balance?

[Anonymous]

I've been looking into my scores and watching closely, all my scores have gone up regularly after paying down balances except Equifax, they take my score down, why? If I'm being penalized for making more that the minimum payment how am I supposed to improve my score?

- Confused

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, nobody here will be able to answer that question except to say that Equifax tends to be rather screwy when it comes to account balances. Each of the three CRA's have their own little quirks, and it's something all of us have to deal with.

[lg8302ch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've been looking into my scores and watching closely, all my scores have gone up regularly after paying down balances except Equifax, they take my score down, why? If I'm being penalized for making more that the minimum payment how am I supposed to improve my score?

- Confused

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Welcome to the forum

Can you list all your accounts you have on EQ  with  CL and balance that is reported. I would be interested to see if what I suspect in my case  could also apply to you.   Please also indicate the number of closed revolving accounts.  The scores you are looking at are Fico 8 scores? Or Vantage 3.0 ?

[Imhotrodcrazy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've been looking into my scores and watching closely, all my scores have gone up regularly after paying down balances except Equifax, they take my score down, why? If I'm being penalized for making more that the minimum payment how am I supposed to improve my score?

- Confused

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I feel your pain.  I got an alert yesterday from EQ,  that I had paid off a small charge of $65  and my score dropped 14 points.  EQ scoring can be ruthless.   

[NRB525]

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@Imhotrodcrazy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've been looking into my scores and watching closely, all my scores have gone up regularly after paying down balances except Equifax, they take my score down, why? If I'm being penalized for making more that the minimum payment how am I supposed to improve my score?

- Confused

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I feel your pain.  I got an alert yesterday from EQ,  that I had paid off a small charge of $65  and my score dropped 14 points.  EQ scoring can be ruthless.   

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So you paid an account to zero?

How many accounts do you have actually reporting a balance, so they have a non-zero balance, during a month?

How many accounts are reporting zero every month?

Was this account reporting a balance consistently for several months prior to going to zero?