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Why Did My Credit Score Go Down

You Ran Up A Larger Than Normal Balance On Your Credit Cards

Why did my credit score go down? (for no reason)

According to myFICO , Amounts Owed accounts for 30% of your credit score:

The 5 categories that make up your credit score

A lot of people assume that if they pay their bill in full every month, making a big purchase or charging up more than they usually do wont affect their score, Silverman says. But thats not the case. It all depends on when your balance gets reported to the credit bureaus. If they see that you owe a larger than the normal amount for you, it will probably hurt your score.

The good news is that as soon as your spending habits return to normal, your score should bounce back, she says.

Your Account Balances Increased

Did you use credit to make a large purchase recently? Have you been accumulating more debt by not paying the full balance you charged each month? If either of these scenarios is true for you, that could explain why your credit score took a dive.

As your account balances increase, so does your credit utilization rate. This is bad news for your credit score since contributes about 30% of your score.

If youve been using your credit card more often without paying it off entirely each month, that could be the source of the change in your credit score.

Low utilization is favorable since it indicates that you are not overextending yourself financially. On the other hand, high utilization shows that you are using a lot of your available credit, which means you are statistically more likely to default on a debt in the future. For this reason, high credit utilization is penalized by credit scoring models.

Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use to overcome the problem of high revolving credit utilization, such as pre-paying your credit card bill before your statement closing date, making more frequent payments throughout the month, increasing your credit limit, or getting a balance transfer card.

Read more about how to improve your utilization ratios in What Is the Difference Between Individual and Overall Credit Utilization Ratios?

Why Did My Credit Score Drop For No Reason

Having a good credit score can open up a lot of financial options. And for people that work to rebuild their credit, making sure that number risesand stays therebecomes an important financial habit. But credit scores tend to fluctuate fairly often. Many folks have been left wondering why did my credit score drop for no reason? And if youre one of them, then read on to learn more!

There are times when that score can seem to drop for no reason. If this has happened to you, you might have asked yourself, Whats going on? What did I do wrong? You pay the same bills. You have the same number of loans. And youre working hard to be continually responsible with your credit cards. But still, your credit score is changingand not in a good way.

Although a credit score drop can seem to come out of nowhere, many factors can affect it. In this blog, well take a closer look at your credit score and the financial elements that make it up. Then, well show you what can cause your credit score to drop and how to put it back on the right track.

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Change In Credit Utilization Rate

Your is another important factor in determining credit scores. VantageScore says that its extremely influential, and FICO® says that it accounts for 30% of your overall score.

If you spent more than usual last month , it will increase your credit utilization rate. How far will your scores drop because of it? The effect will vary, depending on how much your ratio of credit used versus available credit went up. To keep your credit scores steady, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, recommends that consumers keep their credit utilization rate below 30%.

Imagine that you have a $10,000 credit limit, of which you typically only use $1,500 . If your spending one month increases to $2,500, your utilization ratio will still be solid overall at 25%. But if your spending suddenly increased to $5,000 , your scores could start showing a decline.

Establishing Or Building Your Credit Scores

Why Did My Credit Score Go Down When Nothing Changed ...

Depending on your experience with credit, you might not have a credit report at all. Or, your credit report might not have enough information that credit scoring models are able to assign you a credit score.

With FICO® Scores, you need to have at least one account that’s six months old or older, and credit activity during the past six months. With VantageScore, a score may be calculated as soon as an account appears on your report.

When you don’t meet the criteria, the scoring model can’t score your credit reportin other words, you’re “credit invisible.” As a result, creditors won’t be able to check your credit scores, which could make it difficult to open new credit accounts.

Some people may be in a situation where they’ve only opened accounts with creditors that report to only one bureau. When this happens, they may only be scorable if a creditor requests a credit report and score from that bureau.

If you’re brand new to credit, or reestablishing your credit, revisit step one above.

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An Account That You Are Piggybacking On Became Delinquent

Sometimes being an authorized user on a credit card or having a joint account can be a risky thing. You are relying on the other person to pay their bills on time and to manage their balances well, otherwise their behavior can compromise your credit.

In other words, an ideal tradeline should have a low utilization ratio, it should have a higher age than your average age of accounts and your oldest account, and most importantly, it needs to have a perfect payment history.

Therefore, you want to avoid being added as an authorized user to a tradeline that has any derogatory marks on it so that those derogatory items dont get added to your credit file and end up damaging your credit.

Thats the danger of piggybacking on a friend or family members credit cardeven if the tradeline is perfect when you are first added to it, theres no guarantee that it will stay that way.

If your authorized user tradeline does get any missed payments on its record, that could definitely hurt your credit, and it would be smart to remove yourself from it immediately. To do so, simply call the credit card issuer and request to be removed from the account, as most banks allow you to do this without needing to go through the primary account holder.

Delinquency on the part of the primary account holder can cause problems if you are piggybacking on someone elses credit account.

Changes In Ficos Formula

The FICO formula changes occasionally, most recently in December 2016. The purpose is to keep up with the changing needs of consumers and lenders. As well as the standard model, there are also industry-specific versions, such as for the auto-lending industry.

Obviously, there have been several different versions of the FICO scoring model, and lenders have the option to choose which version they are going to use. Since different versions of the formula look at things slightly differently, your credit score may change if a lender begins to use a different version.

The table below shows the wide variation in the versions used by different lenders in different industries:

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How Do I Get My Credit Score To Go Up

Recovering from bad credit can take a while depending on what impacted your credit score. Ultimately, keep in mind is that credit is not generally very forgiving but it is possible to repair your credit with basic and with the implementation of good credit practices.

Transunion outlines a few different ways to build your credit health:

Check Your Credit Report

Use a credit checking service like Turbo to periodically check in on your credit score. This can help you understand what has impacted your score and give you the opportunity to identify any mistakes on your score.

Increase Your Credit Limit

Requesting a credit limit increase can help you keep your credit utilization rate in the sweet spot. Just be sure to keep your spending habits in control when you have more spending power with a higher limit.

Consider Opening Appropriate New Lines of Credit or Up Your Credit Limit

As previously mentioned, its wise to apply only for credit cards youre likely to be approved for. Dont risk lowering your credit score for an unnecessary hard inquiry. Keeping an open line of credit with a very minimal or zero balance can sometimes help improve your credit utilization standing. If youre not using a significant portion of your available credit, your credit score can go up. Make sure to do your research before deciding to open a new credit card to repair your credit as this varies for each credit user.

Why Did My Credit Score Just Drop 6 Common Reasons

Why did my credit score drop even though nothing changed?

Your three-digit credit score can be the difference between being approved for a new financial product with strong terms versus being stuck with sky-high interest rates or worse, denied altogether. So it can be incredibly frustrating when you think youre doing well financially, only to find that your score has dropped.

that helps lenders and often landlords determine how much risk you pose as a borrower or renter. The better your credit score, the lower your interest rates and larger your credit limits will be, while the opposite is true the lower your score is. But credit scores also frequently change, and sometimes not for any obvious reason.

Scores fluctuate all the time depending on how the information in your credit history is evolving and changing, says Rod Griffin, senior director of consumer education and advocacy at Experian.

Here are the six most common problems that can lower your credit score, according to Griffin:

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Limit How Often You Apply For New Accounts

While you may need to open accounts to build your credit file, you generally want to limit how often you submit credit applications. Each application can lead to a hard inquiry, which may hurt your scores a little, but inquiries can add up and have a compounding effect on your credit scores. Opening a new account will also decrease your average age of accounts, and that could also hurt your scores.

Inquiries and the average age of your accounts are minor scoring factors, but you still want to be cautious about how many applications you submit. One exception is when you’re rate shopping for certain types of loans, such as an auto loan or mortgage. Credit scoring models recognize that rate shopping isn’t risky behavior and may ignore some inquiries if they occur within the span of a couple of weeks.

Your Bankruptcy Fell Off Your Credit Report

When bankruptcy falls off your credit report after seven years , you’ll likely move to a new credit scorecard, similar to what happens when a collection drops off your credit score. You could see a drop in your credit score because now your credit performance is being compared to other people who haven’t filed bankruptcy.

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You Made A New Application For Credit

Any time you put in a new application for credit, an inquiry is added to your credit report. Because inquiries make up 10 percent of your credit score, applying for new credit can affect your credit score.

Though inquiries stay on your credit report for two years, they’re only factored into your credit score for one year. After just a single inquiry, your credit score should steadily increase and recover in 12 months, provided you make no other credit mistakes.

You Recently Took Out A New Line Of Credit

Why Did My Credit Score Go Down?

You mightve seen a drop in your credit score if youve recently been accepted for any new lines of credit. The amount your score actually drops will depend on how large the loan is and your overall credit history, but its one of the most common reasons peoples scores go down, according to Griffin.

It may not make sense at first glance: You had a good enough score to secure a low-interest mortgage loan, so why would it suddenly drop down now that you have it? But from a creditors perspective, Griffin says that while you may have good credit history, they have no idea whether or not youll continue to make the required payments long-term.

The good news is that if your credit score has taken a dip after being approved for a new loan, once you consistently make payments over the next few months, it will likely rebound or even grow as you build a longer credit history.

One piece of common knowledge about building credit is that your score tends to take a hit whenever a hard credit check is run on you, usually when applying for a new line of credit or apartment. But according to Griffin, a credit inquiry alone is unlikely to have a major impact on your overall score maybe 10 points at maximum.

You might see your scores dip a bit initially, but inquiries are really the least important factor in credit scores and will have the least impact, he says.

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How Is A Credit Score Determined

To understand whats happening, you first need to have a good grasp on how credit scores are determined. There are a number of different types of credit scores but the one most commonly used is the FICO model. Your FICO credit score is determined by the following categories:

In this instance, the biggest factor that will be negatively affected is the new credit category that makes up 10% of your score. New credit looks two major things affected here: recent inquiries and new accounts opened.

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Why Did My Credit Score Drop After Paying Down Debt

Recently, someone told me his credit score dropped after paying down debt. She was angry, dejected, worried, and frustrated. Her frustration is normal and justified. In fact, this is one of the top questions asked in forums every day. So I wanted to write a detailed post to give people a good link to read when they ask the same question again.

“My balance on Discover credit card was $185. My FICO score was 723. I paid it off yesterday with my tax refund. Today, I got an alert showing my payment has been posted but my credit score dropped by 11 points. Whats wrong? Why did my credit score drop after paying off debt? What can I do to get my credit score up? Im panicked because Im going to apply for a mortgage soon.”

Stacy:“You didnt lose points because you paid off your debt. Your credit score dropped due to some other reasons, which Im explaining later.”

You paid off debt. It was a trigger-worthy alert and this is why FICO notified you. FICO has pulled a brand new credit report and recalculated your credit score. You cant view your credit report from alerts though.

Lets come back to your main question now – Why did my credit score drop after paying down debt?’

Your credit score dropped due to some other changes on your credit report. Those changes might not be something to trigger an alert in the past but might be enough to drop your credit score.

You Applied For A Lot Of Credit

Why Your CREDIT SCORE Went Down!

Getting approved for a loan or credit card, especially if its your first, feels pretty good. And so it can seem logical to go ahead and use your good credit to get other credit products. But hard inquiries when a lender or card issuer looks at your credit for purposes of making a decision about approving you can cause a small, temporary dip in your credit. Several within a short window, say, six months, can cause a pretty big dent.

The fix: Time. Stop applying for credit until your score rebounds. Then space out applications every six months or so. And apply only for credit products you are almost certain youll be approved for, because losing a few points and getting turned down carries an extra sting.

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Why Did Your Score Change

Your credit score gives lenders a sense of your debt-repayment history. Although different models are used to calculate your score, they all take the same financial behaviour into account. Your credit score is calculated based on your payment history, the amount of money you owe, the length of your credit history, the type of credit you have, and the new credit that has been added. A change in your score means one of those factors has changed.

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