How Often Does Your Credit Score Change?

[...] Credit Repair Advice wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHow Often Does Your Credit Score Change? Written by Kenneth Lin May 16th, 2008 at 11:09 AM CDT No comments We get asked this question quite often. Technically, it can change any point your credit report changes. Any of the following can trigger a credit score change: Missing a Payment Applying for a New Loan or Credit Card Changing Your Available Credit Defaulting on a Loan or Charging Off Bankruptcy The List Goes On…… But some people have asked why their score has not changed in months. [...]

What is so amazing to me is that none of this was taught in high school. What you are doing here is so very valuable.

Your credit rating is a major factor in determining the financial choices you have in life yet we don’t teach those about to enter the system anything about it.

If we did, you wouldn’t have had to write this blog entry. Thanks for being a teacher in an area where our government earns a resounding F!

[...] about your credit score or credit cards such as: Relationship Between Age and Credit Scores, How Often Does Your Credit Score Change?, or How A Credit Card Limit Is [...]

[...] of us don’t realize just how much of an impact our credit scores can have on our finances. What triggers change in your credit scores? Well, if you have had difficulty paying your bills in the past, or you have not done much work to [...]

I actually had my score raise a few points after applying for a new card. That goes to show how important it is to establish those positive accounts, if you have several negatives on there.

Recently a credit card decreased my credit limit nearly 12k because they reviewed my credit history. The only recent bad marks is since I am a new graduate and young credit history, it took a few attempts to get my car loan. I am debating whether I should put my extra cash toward my high interest car payment or toward lower interest, but high debt ratio cards in an effort to increase my credit score so that I may get a better refinance rate on my auto loan

@ Rob

Sounds like there are three options. What is the interest rate on the auto loan and credit card and what is your credit score.

If your score is low, I would think you will have better options if you raise it.

I have been a memeber with TransUnion 3 in 1 credit services since 2001. I have 3 open accounts (revolving credit)and 1 derogatory account (Paid)No new inquires since 2007 debt to credit ratio is less than 35%. No late payments and my credit score is going up and down. I just don’t understand why last week my credit score was 690 with Experian/ 690 with Transunion and 715 with Equifax and now my score is 675/675/715 with no recent activities besides paying my bill on time which is more than the minimum required. Is Transunion a rip off? When calling customer service my response is that there must be a technical issue. Does anyone have any advise on how to dispute my score only being that my report is accurate.

Sally,

Have you checked your credit limits? Many credit cards are lowering credit limits due to the economy. A lower credit line could bring up your utilization and lower your score

Well my score has not changed since I got my first score in March 2008. Since then I have paid off over $17,000 in debt and have add no new debt. I would have to say something is not working.

I just had 3 collection accounts deleted off my reports and my score is still the same? Why?

@ Ruby & Chris

The first part is to confirm the changes on your credit report. You credit score is the numerical interpretation of the report so you have to make sure the underlying data is correct first.

All the statistics in the world will not account for parents who take on the tasks of helping their kids and, when they do so, incur the risk that the kid will do something stupid and impact the parents score. My daughter ask if she could buy my car because she had a new job out of state. I had equity in the car and it was titled in my name. I gave the equity to my daughter and she did relatively well making the payments over a two year period. She missed two payments by 30 days in that time, but quickly made up the payments. However, the biggest impact she had, was getting a ticket in an out of state city and not paying the ticket. I had no idea the ticket was incurred because she had changed the license on the car to the state she was living in. As a consequence I went over a year before I ask to borrow money only to find my credit score had dropped from over 700 to 680.

Im currently looking for a new(ish) truck. Last I saw my score was 706, and while I know the loan will affect this dramaticly. What I want to know is How much does it cost me point wise when I go to a different dealer to talk numbers?

I want to make a Very informed purchase, but I will have to do less dealer talk if each visit is going to hit my score hard.

My score was 794 on Sept. 6 and stayed the same until March 30 when it dropped to 773. I have not done anything that would have affected it. I pay my credit card bills in full every month, have never had a late payment on anything, and have not applied for any new credit cards or anything recently. I did get a store credit card back in November (in order to get a discount on m purchase), but would that wait until March to affect it? It was still 794 on Feb. 23, so the drop took place between then and March 30. Should I be concerned that there is an error on my report? Or are the scores perhaps getting more strict due to the economic mess?

This is a common question. Hope this answer helps:

http://www.creditkarma.com/question/causes_for_score_drop

Thanks, Kenneth, but I haven’t made any of those changes listed in that article. I’m pretty sure my credit limits haven’t changed, and nothing else new is going on. That’s why I’m concerned about the drop and wondering if it’s time to pull my credit report.

Depending on what you score is and how much it dropped, it could be a by product of aging. That is, the benefit of old loans that were paid off in good standing will wane in time. But sometimes, it is safer to just check. AnnualCreditReport is the only free site for doing this.

My credit sucks, I have no bankruptcy, one unsecure loan, which is paid on time, no credit cards, I have had loans in the past some of which were 30 days late but quickly paid up and soon after paid off, why does it seem my credit score keeps droping, and how can I bring it back up

My credit score is over 770 on each of the three major reporting bureaus. I only use one credit card and I pay it off each month. However I have several other cards that I do not use, some have not been used for more than 2 years. Will it improve my score to periodically use the cards that I now don’t use?

I am a UK citizen and have been living in the US now for almost 5 years. At first I had no score which was tough. Anyway over the past 4 years my score built up and up and changed almost weekly. However for the past year it has been stuck on 744. I have 4 mortgages and many credit cards (I do not carry balances) There are regular changes on my file (no negatives) but my score never moves. Any ideas?

Last month I received a notice from Chase that my credit limit was being dropped from $8,000 to $2,000. I’ve had the account about three years, ALWAYS paid on time, much more than minimum, have never used over 20% of available credit, and paid it off completely three months ago. The explanation was something like “overuse of bankcard.” Then, two days later, I got a letter from Citibank, saying that because I was such a good customer, they were RAISING my limit from $8,000 to $10,000. The use and payment on this card was virtually the same as on Chase. I’m just curious why one would see me as a liability and the other as, essentially, an asset to keep. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Based on my experience, it is more of the risk profile of the different banks. Lenders have a different appetites and perceptions of risk. Chase is a company trying reduce their risk after absorbing a company that collapsed because it had too much risk (WaMu). Citi is just starting to get back on its feet and may be trying to build its balances with customers now that it has clean up its balance sheet. Hope that helps.

It is possible to ask Kenneth Lin a question on a credit report?

We have a Q&A section on the site but I would love to help if possible. What is on your mind?

Hi Kenneth - I have a question about stable credit scores. Mine has been stuck at 722/772/761 since March of 2009, at least. I make two payments per month on my credit cards and would really like to do something to raise the first score (722) but it seems like nothing I do has any effect. Shouldn’t it be going up little by little? Is there anything I can do?

Thanks for any help.

I assume the three numbers are your tri-bureau scores? There is a 33 point swing from my highest score to my lowest score. This is common since each bureau has specific information. There generally isn’t much you can to get a lender to report to a bureau provided whatever they are reporting is accurate.

Given your score is high, you probably have 100% on-time payments and a good amount trade lines. Aside from letting your history increase and paying down debt there may not be much you can do. I would suggesting trying the Credit Karma score simulator to see your options. Lastly, sometimes adding a bit more available credit via a new credit card can help. Good Luck!