Despite making regular on-time payments toward my debt, my credit score keeps going down and not up. Any suggestions?

[Date_a_Snob]

[BoopBoopBeep]

I keep my usage down to no more than 10% of available credit and pay it off in full every month. My credit score is between 830 and 850, though admittedly I only kept it at 850 long enough to get a screenshot before applying for another card with rewards I liked, so usually more towards 830. You could go a little higher than 10%, but like some other people said, I wouldn't go over 20. Credit checks are on there for 2 years, when they fall off it'll go up, but average age of card and age of latest card are big ones too, so if you don't have a lengthy history I'd stop applying for more for a while. Don't get store cards and never close a credit card if you don't have to. Put some annual subscription on there so it stays active if it isn't going to be a major use card. I use Amazon gift cards as my automated spend on lesser cards because I'm going to be buying something on amazon nearly every month.

Now that explains why it isn't going up, but not why it's going down. Is your balance increasing? Keep in mind that the lenders dont report to the credit bureaus on your due date. It's whatever date they feel like and they aren't going to tell you, so it may be that you are having a higher balance reported because your old payment hasn't posted yet if you're just making minimum payments or something. Really work on treating it like a debit card. I don't charge anything I can't go home and pay off immediately if I need to.

[Orion84]

Credit scores are determined by a lot more than just making your payments on time.

That's obviously part of it, and very important, but your total debt, and available credit, also makes a significant impact. Your salary/earning potential also matters, to a degree.

For example, if you have three credit cards, and they are all maxed out, then you're utilizing 100% of your available credit. It's obviously important to make the payment on time, but creditors will still see you as a high risk, due to the fact that you're using so much of your credit already. Thus, your credit score will be lower.

Likewise, if you have credit cards, a mortgage, & an auto loan, that will all factor in to your credit score, as well. If all of those add up to a disproportiate amount of your income, your credit score will go down, too, because you're seen as not having the income to repay the debt you have. Thus, it's a risk for a bank to loan you additional money.

[whirled_up_girl]

Make sure you pay more than the minimum. I had this problem too I made sure to make two or three times the minimum each payment.

[caring__1]

Though 2-3 times the minimum is great and will pay off your debt faster, credit reporting agencies credit you with more than the minimum if you even pay $1 more than the minimum. They're also more interested in how much the remaining balance is declining rather than how much interest you are paying.

[catarecute]

your credit score only goes up when you paid it all

[Fireguy17]

What do you owe vs what do you make.
Also you have a finite total of credit, and every credit car whether there is a zero balance on it or it is maxed out the limit on that card comes off of that total because you have the potential to charge that month.
Your payments vs income also plays a part of that score as well as your net worth.
You figure that by the current value of what you own, minus what you owe.
So you could own $300,000 worth of stuff but still owe $298,000 on it so your net worth would be 2 frand, pretty bad.
Also constantly checking your credit score can lower your credit score.
Possibly your bank has a credit counselor on staff, or your county, city, town might have one.
It's worth understanding that, especially as you get older and want to buy a house.

[convo_king89]

having regular payments isn’t the only thing. It’s how quickly can you pay off your balance by managing your finiances. If you have car loan if 10k and make regular payments of $50 cuz that’s all you can afford and that’s your minimum payment when you are working part time for min wage and your places takes up most of your paycheck. That says you are risky to lenders since you can’t make responsible financial decisions and always have a balance will cost more with interest and will take longer. I don’t know your situtation but if you pay off your debt in one shot your score will go up.

[AviatorTom]

Sounds like you are decreasing your overall debt. It sounds backwards, but your credit score typically goes up the more debt you owe, so long as you make regular payments.

Also, your score will go down if you only make the minimum payment due each month.

[love_conquers_lust]

Credit scores are kind of stupid. They actually go down... just by a report being requisitioned. They assume that being researched means you already aren't credit worthy. I couldn't believe that shit when I first heard it. Then it slowly rises when you DON'T look it up. I'm like, what?

[Anonymous]

How much debt do you have? Here is the thing, if you're using more than 20% of your available credit, your score will definitely go down. And it will go down a lot. Your credit utilization is the biggest factor in your score, followed by on time payments. And how old your credit is. For example the below gets you about an 800 score.

[Date_a_Snob]

I only have four accounts. My oldest is about 2.5 years old. I always make wmy payments on time. I think whats hurting my score is the number of times my credit has been checked.

[Opinion Owner]

Possible, you lose 5 points for every time your credit is checked. How much of your credit are you using? For example, if you have a 2k card are you using 1500 dollars of it? Cause that can also cause massive issues. I just went through this, I had 16000 dollars across 7 cards and my utilization was 90%.. That killed my credit until I paid it off. Now my utilization is 4%.

[caring__1]

Don't apply for anything that requires a credit check, unless you have a good chance of getting approved. Use apps like Credit Karma. They'll show you how to increase your score at no charge, will give you recommendations of cards you are likely to get approved for, and they'll pay you $50 if you're not approved by their recommendation. The apps that charge you to boost your score often aren't worth the money it costs for them, and they can be questionable, so research any app you want to choose (ie Self has a B rating with the BBB due to numerous complaints, and Experian Boost only works on Experian, and not all companies using Experian accept Experian Boost).

[Static_In_The_Attic]

Eliminate your debt & things will change for the better.

[exitseven]

Yes, request your credit report and find out what is going on.

[Mark987]

Make sure your debt is less than 50% of the amount of debt you can get. Don't use department store credit cards.

[Jennz6]

I don’t understand how the credit score works, but when I took out a loan my score went up

[LunarEclipse433]

Get another card and just make occasional on time purchases

[Stacey55666]

Go to your bank and ask them.

[Mansearching]

Slow and steady payments

[BLP11520]

How many credit cards do you have?

[Date_a_Snob]

I have three and a line of credit.

[BLP11520]

I wonder what is going on here

[Anonymous]

Have a rich boyfriend 😘