Paid off credit card, score went DOWN

[Anonymous]

Earlier this month I finally paid off a credit card balance of a few thousand dollars that’s been hanging over my head for a while. I was so excited to finally get the balance down to $0, and was also looking forward to the expected boost to my credit score. Signed into my Experian account today, and see that my credit score has dropped a few points. What the hell?

Has anyone had this happen to them? How long did it take your score to rebound if you started carrying a small balance again?

[Anonymous]

Did you close the account?

[Anonymous]

The credit score downgrade is probably reflecting your latest big purchase and not necessarily you paying off the balance. Give it a month or so and it should go back up.

[Anonymous]

It may take longer if you just paid it off in the last couple of weeks. Credit cards only report to the agencies once a month. Wait a few weeks and look again.

[Anonymous]

Credit scores are BS. I opened 2 new cards but kept my total level of spending the same, and my credit scores went way up because I was only using a small fraction of my available credit lines. Which is ridiculous because with 2 new credit cards I have a lot more possibility of getting myself into debt than I did in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Credit scores are BS. I opened 2 new cards but kept my total level of spending the same, and my credit scores went way up because I was only using a small fraction of my available credit lines. Which is ridiculous because with 2 new credit cards I have a lot more possibility of getting myself into debt than I did in the past.

Which is exactly why I opened another CC, that I use sporadically for small purchases.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Didn’t close the card, and have not made any big purchases. The balance being paid off is already reflected on my Experian account, so I figured it had been reported to the agencies at this point. So frustrating!

[Anonymous]

I paid off my student loans and my credit dropped almost 50 pts since I didn't have any of that type of debt anymore (this was about 3 months before we starting buying our home). I was beyond pissed lol.

[Anonymous]

Let’s just say I now understand Dave Ramsey’s position on credit scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s just say I now understand Dave Ramsey’s position on credit scores.

What’s his position?

[Anonymous]

If it was in collections, its because your payment updated and re-aged the debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s just say I now understand Dave Ramsey’s position on credit scores.

What’s his position?

Not the quoted pp, but I think it's that you want your credit score to be 0 because then you don't owe anything to anyone and live a cash based lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it was in collections, its because your payment updated and re-aged the debt.

No, actually have never had a late payment or had anything go to collections. Looking around online, I think the answer may be that you’re supposed to keep a small amount of revolving debt to keep your credit score up. Which is nuts, that you get penalized for having no debt.

[Anonymous]

Revolving balance 1) allows banks to profit from finance charges - no debt, no business; 2) demonstrates self-discipline from the borrow 3) monitors consumer spending patterns

Highest scores have 10%-30% max utilization of revolving credit

[Anonymous]

Are you part of the DCUM no debt club? You brag about being debt free? Not taking any debt? Paying cash for your cars?
Well, the price for this is a low credit score.
If you want a high credit score, you should be willing to have some debt.