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Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

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Mshellt
New Contributor

Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

Experian says "The balance on one of your accounts has decreased by $176.00" <---Why would that cause my score to drop 29 points? Utilization dropped to 18%..that's GOOD right? I just can't make heads or tails of the logic of this.
 
Company Name DISCOVER FIN SVCS LLC
  • Utilization Percentage
  • 21%18%
  • Balance Amount
  • $1,535.00$1,359.00

Starting Score: 630
Current Score:Equifax: 776 TransUnion: 746 Experian: 747


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Message 1 of 16
15 REPLIES 15
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

Unfortunately the monitoring solution doesn't track every change, it only updates on ones that it does catch (like balance changes in this case).

 

Something other than the balance change likely occurred, and looking at the report is necessary.




        
Message 2 of 16
CreditBob
Established Contributor

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

What other factors are in your credit report? Is there anything that you may have overlooked?

Message 3 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

I am guessing you are a subscriber to the myFICO 3B Monitoring product.  Is that where you are seeing the Experian message you describe?

 

If so, it is an "alert."  The alert is describing a way your report has changed.  (In this case, one of your credit card balances went down.)  When an "alertable" event occurs, the MF 3B monitoring product pulls your score again.

 

The message is explaining what the alertable event was.  But there are a lot of events that are not alertable.  What must have happened (with 100% certainty) is that something else changed on your report, either on the same day or in the last several weeks.  That other thing is what is causing your score to go down.  It's just that this bad thing apparently wasn't alertable, so your score wasn't pulled at the time. 

 

You should congratulate yourself that you are coming to understand scoring well enough to realize that a credit card balance going down cannot cause your score to go down.  (The only exception would be if all your cards were $0 except one, and then that remaining card went to $0.)

 

Some people find an "alert" based system confusing and unhelpful, since it cannot be relied on (even most of the time) to explain why your score has changed.  Such people switch to a system like CCT, which enables you to control when your score is pulled or (like me) they just use free tools to get their monthly FICO score and credit reports.

Message 4 of 16
Mshellt
New Contributor

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

Thank you--there have been other things this month. I recently applied for a home loan for instance and I am sure that would have lead to a hard pull..strange though that THAT has not shown up yet. The last thing I expected was a card payment to be harmful though, so thank you for the explanation!


Starting Score: 630
Current Score:Equifax: 776 TransUnion: 746 Experian: 747


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Message 5 of 16
Mshellt
New Contributor

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

Actually..maybe I'd better follow this up with a question: Could a homeloan credit check cause my score to drop 29 points? (I thought credit checks would only cause a minor drop) And why aren't the credit pulls displaying in my account?


Starting Score: 630
Current Score:Equifax: 776 TransUnion: 746 Experian: 747


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Message 6 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?


@Mshellt wrote:

Actually..maybe I'd better follow this up with a question: Could a homeloan credit check cause my score to drop 29 points? (I thought credit checks would only cause a minor drop) And why aren't the credit pulls displaying in my account?


Not 100% sure what you mean by "account."   Do you mean the myFICO 3B monitoring product?

 

For example, do you mean that you are looking at the report that you got with the MF 3B product and you don't see certain recent activity (recent inquiries, new accounts, etc.) on it?  If so, the explanation is probably that (as I understand it) the monitoring tool you have purchased only updates the report every 90 days.

 

My advice is to do two things:

 

(1)  Get better acquainted with the MF tool you have purchased.  I.e. learn how it works, when it updates, what its alerts mean, etc.  A lot of your questions appear to you to be questions about the FICO scoring system, when in fact they are really questions about how a very specific tool you have purchased from a 3rd party works.

 

(2)  Get some free tools that enable you to pull your credit reports on a fairly frequest basis.  The best one is Credit Karma, which will allow you to pull TU and EQ as often as once a week.  (My advice is to us Karma only for the actual report.  Ignore what Karma's summary tools say about your account age, for example, and ignore their scores.)  Print out each report every week, go over it carefully, and watch how it changes.  Experian also now offers a free tool that gives you your EX report, though it is only once a month.

 

When you have a really clear handle on what you think should be on your reports, versus what is currently on them on a very recent pull, then you will be in better shape to ask for help, possibly in the General forum.

Message 7 of 16
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?


@Mshellt wrote:

Actually..maybe I'd better follow this up with a question: Could a homeloan credit check cause my score to drop 29 points? (I thought credit checks would only cause a minor drop) And why aren't the credit pulls displaying in my account?


Inquiries are effectively recorded instantly and generally are a trigger on all 3 bureaus from a monitoring perspective anyway.  If it was 30+ days ago then it may have factored in to the score drop, but unless you were at an absurdly high score I don't see how an inquiry would ever be 29 points on a FICO algorithm and we've never had that size reported previously.

 

i.e. I'm a dirty file playing around ~700, I just had 3 individually counting inquiries age past a year (no longer counted by FICO in the algorithm) in August on Transunion and am now down to a single inquiry and my FICO 8 appears to have moved ~7 points upward.  Experian isn't substantially different in that regard.

 

Did the other bureaus report a similar change?




        
Message 8 of 16
Mshellt
New Contributor

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

That is concerning then. There is no reason under the sun that I can think of as to why my score should drop. I have made no new credit purchases and am paying my minor credit card debt in payments that are above the minimum. Credit checks are the only negative things that might have happened in the last 30 days and that large 29 score drop is only showing up in the single bureau.


Starting Score: 630
Current Score:Equifax: 776 TransUnion: 746 Experian: 747


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Message 9 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Why in the world did score drop 29 points?

Is a 29 point drop reason to initiate a dispute with Equifax so you can take a gander at your report and see what could be hurting it? If not, maybe original poster could check annualcreditreport.com?
Message 10 of 16
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