785 FICO Score
January 22, 2009 by awjolls
Filed under Credit Scores, MyScoreBlog
785 FICO Score
We’ll once again, breaking my own strategy to keep my credit score high led to a FICO credit score decrease. This time it was by 7 points to 785. What’s different?
- I let my American Express bill run up to over $3,000 for the month. Normally, I pay it off twice per month to make sure I keep the balance low. Remember that credit utilization or the ratio of credit used each month divided by your credit available is a crucial credit score factor.
- I didn’t use one of my credit cards for over 12 months and now it’s been closed. I warned against this in my post on closing down credit cards hurts
The good news is:
- My credit score is still high enough to get the best rates at 785
- I can overcome the recent decline in one month by paying off my balances more quickly. I might adjust and pay them off every week versus every two weeks to see the impact. Remember that payment history is a crucial part of the credit scoring module.
- The card that closed down had a small limit.
You can allows follow my personal journey at MyScoreBlog. Aren’t tracking your credit score? Start tracking your FICO score now with Score Watch
Similar Posts:
- Closing Date and Due Dates Can Impact Your Credit Score – Episode #8
- Amounts Owed: 30% of your Credit Score – Episode #82
- Manage Your FICO Credit Score for a Refinance – Episode #52
- Higher FICO Credit Scores – Lesson #6
- Tips for Full Credit Card Balance Payers – Episode #57
- Translating Your FICO Credit Score Into Interest Rates – Episode #54
Just of curiosity and for fun.. I also subscribe to FICO® Score Watch.. wanted to share some of my reports and possible reasons for the lowering of my points.. here we go
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FICO score history
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2/25/2009 770 Score Watch® alert: Your score has dropped.
12/28/2008 777 Score Watch® alert: Your score has dropped.
12/20/2008 778 Score Watch® alert: Your score is unchanged.
…
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11/12/2008 778 Score Power report: Your score is 778.
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2/25/2009
Your FICO® score decreased to 770 (from 777) on February 25, 2009
more info
1 of your accounts reported balance increases
CAPITAL ONE (XXXXXXXXXXXX8712)
New balance: $74
12/28/2008
Your FICO® score decreased to 777 on December 28, 2008
more info
1 of your accounts reported balance increases
CAPITAL ONE (XXXXXXXXXXXX8712)
New balance: $850
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I am sure I am not understanding something correctly here.. back in Dec. I made all my holidays shopping with this card therefore the balance of 850 reported.. understandably the score went down but just 1 point!
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Then I get a seven point drop because the same credit card balance goes up from 0 to $74 bucks? whats the deal!? lol
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I either pay 1/2 or total balance of this credit card religiously per month.
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comments? I never seen a report so far that says my credit score increased x points.
Carlos, I’m digging into my records as well and I have some anomolies as well. Or, rather, I think there are anomolies. Perhaps, it’s something else that happened at the same time. In my case, one drop was due to a new inquiry. Make sure you haven’t had an credit limit decreases too.
Which company gives me my true credit score?
Good question. There is no “true”, there is only getting the scores that are close to, or exactly what lenders are using. Most use FICO scores, but there are flavors of FICO too. I think if you pull FICO score, you will likely be closer to the score the lender is using, but no one can say this for sure.