33 point hit to credit score
My credit score dropped by 33 points this week and I can't figure out why. None of my limits have been reduced, my utilization is at 4% (usually fluctuates from 2-10% at most). No new inquiries, 2 hard inquiries over the last 2 years.
I'm a bit stumped here. What could cause such a big hit and do I need to order a full report because of it? The change dropped me a full tier.
Thanks,
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Official comment
Hi Micah,
Welcome to the NerdWallet community, great question. I know how alarming an unexpected credit score decrease can be and I'm happy to offer some information about this.
While I can't say what specifically caused the drop to your score, the most likely culprit is an increase to your credit utilization ratio. I understand you keep your utilization very low (which is a great habit, by the way!); however, an increase in utilization at any point in the past month (for example, if you made a large purchase) could have been reported to the credit bureaus - even if you paid off your balance in full at the end of the month.
The good news in this case is that if you continue to practice good credit habits - like paying your balance on time and in full every month and avoiding new hard inquiries - you should see your score recover over the next few months.
With that being said, I can't guarantee that's the reason and would definitely encourage you to review your full credit report for any errors or unexpected activity. You can do this by logging into your NerdWallet account and navigating to the "See your full credit report" section (found toward the bottom of the Credit Score page).
I wish I could give you a more specific answer, but I hope this context is still helpful! If you have any other questions about your credit score or report, let us know and we'll do our best to help.
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What is the source you get your score from? if you use a monitoring service who suddenly switched from providing you with a FICO 8.0 to FICO 9.0 this is likely the cause.
You are currently allowed to access all three bureaus weekly for free thanks to COVID so you might as well pull them and take a look at the hard facts.
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The Nerd Wallet weekly update and the update that I get from SoFi both showed the same drop. The one I get from my bank clearly says it's Fico 9, it's been showing 18 points higher than the other two and it went up one additional point, which I wouldn't worry about one way or another. I typically get a few points of sway either way depending on when I pay my balances in full vs when the reporting data was captured.
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