Why does my credit score bounce back and forth over a 30'ish point range?

Question

My credit score seems to bounce back and forth over a 30'ish point gap. I have changed nothing (edit: that I know of).

In fact, in the most recent reporting on Credit Karma, my overall credit usage was 16%, yet my score dropped by 36 points.

Do they score credit cards separately? For instance, I had ~28% utilization on one card and ~3% utilization on another card.

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Have you pulled your annual credit reports lately? The free ones? Are you quite sure all your lines of credit are being reported to all the agencies? Are you using another source besides credit karma? Quizzle? CreditSesame? (Also, could you tag your location?) — MrChrister, Jun 12, 2013 at 5:19
I'm not sure if all lines are being reported to all credit agencies, but Credit Karma is picking up on all lines of credit. I have added my location as a tag. Credit Karma is currently the only site I am using, but I will look into those other sites. Thanks for the suggestions! — Ryan, Jun 12, 2013 at 14:43

JB King · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-12 16:16:26Z

4

A few things that may have changed over the time period listed:

Credit utilization - if you are going from 1-18% this could impact how an algorithm scores you in a sense.
Credit requests - How often are you having others do credit checks on you? If there are more inquiries, this could impact your score as if dozens of inquiries happen this could raise a red flag.
Utilities and other possible sources - While you never had card payments be late, is this also true of all your other bills? Perhaps someone else is adding something to your credit report here.

answered Jun 12, 2013 at 16:16

JB King

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I was under the impression that utilization between 1% and 20% was considered ideal. I have had no credit inquiries in well over a year and my utilities are rolled into my rent, which I pay by check.
– Ryan
Jun 12, 2013 at 16:30
+1 for Utilization. I suspect the 1% to 18% can account for 30 points. 30 points isn't that much in the overall.
– MrChrister
Jun 12, 2013 at 16:31
Have you gotten a credit report recently to verify this? There could be cases where someone else is checking your credit without asking.
– JB King
Jun 12, 2013 at 16:32
1

@Ryan - it is ideal, but JoeTaxPayer did some experiments once that showed 3% was the most ideal. But from the credit score point of view, good is good. 30 points isn't too big of a deal.
– MrChrister
Jun 12, 2013 at 16:32
JBKing - Credit Karma shows the number of hard inquiries that have been made on your account. @MrChrister - I'm just worried that I may apply for something and the difference between a 720 and a 750 will matter, which is why I wanted to figure out why this happens or if it's a common thing for other people.
– Ryan
Jun 13, 2013 at 17:19

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