Man, I was feeling all special with my 853. Now, I know it’s really good, but not as good as it can be. Ironically, I’m not sure why my score rose 22 points. On my myFICO Score Watch account, my FICO fell by 7 points and has been falling from my recent 800 peak of a few months ago. Plus, I know why. So I’m unclear what the bank card sees as being better behavior here.

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853 FICO Credit Score … huh?

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?

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. My credit score is still high enough to get the best rates at 785
2. 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.
3. 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

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785 FICO Score

The culprit? I let my American Express go up by $1000. How? I didn’t stick to my own plan of paying 2x per month and it hurt my score. One of the key strategies to improving your credit score is leveraging the fact that you get paid twice per month, to pay off each month.

Aren’t tracking your credit score? Start tracking your FICO score now with Score Watch

792 Credit Score, Down -5 from October

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792 FICO Credit Score

Ok, what a bizarre way to get back up over 800. One of my cards changed its description from “Charge
Amount in H/C column is credit limit” to “Closed or Paid Account/Zero Balance Charge” This means that my FICO score has increased by over 30 points in a few months and that I’m back in the 800s.

Remember, I once hit an 831 FICO Score but that was a few years back when I had no home loan. Yes, while mixture of credit is supposed to help. My mortgage has made it harder to reach my old record with the Equifax FICO, but I’m going to keep on trying!

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800 FICO Score

So, it appears that my risk for credit card default is lower than my risk for a mortgage or other type of credit. That said, my risk is low on both counts. Plus, both scores have improved from early in the year where I was using my credit more to start VideoCreditScore.

My Score Watch FICO increase this year = 33 points
My WAMU FICO increase this year = 50 points

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825 or lower…

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795 FICO Credit Score

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784 FICO Credit Score

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769 FICO Score

So, what should I do? I think my CUR or credit utilization ratio is being hammered by my increased balances so I plan on paying my cards down at least 2 times this month to keep my balances lower. I talk about this practice in Lesson 6. As most of us get paid 2 times per month, it makes sense to develop the practice of paying off your credit cards twice per month. We’ll see next month if my Score improves.

Look we all have lapses. This is a lesson that we need to keep on it — and really manage our credit — to keep a great score.

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762 FICO Credit Score

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790 FICO Credit Score