The hard inquiry for opening that new card lowers your score. The avg age of accounts drops with the new card and that also lowers your score. The $1k credit limit doesn't raise your credit enough to offset the drops but over time the impact of those will wear off and your score will go back above 600.

What the OP in the image probably means is that paying off a non-revolving account (not credit, something like a personal loan or car loan) can drop your score. It will drop more if its a large account because it drops the total value of all accounts or the total value of non-revolving accounts you owe on (not the remaining value, it uses the total for some reason afaik) + your credit limits from cards.

The best way to raise your credit is to just have an assortment of different credit cards, continually pay them off in full, and have some other type of account in the mix like an auto or personal loan that you continually pay off.

Opening all of those at once will tank your credit for a bit because "credit seeking behavior" is a ding against you. That's not an actual term I don't think, but opening a bunch of credit lines at the same time is a bad look and could be a sign of financial distress that scares off lenders. So just start with 1 card and 1 loan then open a new card every 6 mo to 1 yr. Then when you eventually pay off the loan your score may drop anyways so use that time to open a new loan so you offset the impact of the drop.

The system is dumb but it isn't incomprehensible and it's actually possible to game the system a bit. There are companies that offer pre-paid debit cards but they report to the credit agencies as if you have a credit card with like a $1200 limit and they always report that you have a 20% utilization and always pay on time. That way you build credit without ever actually using credit or racking up debt.

The only reason I have a great credit score is because I opened a credit line at 18, and have a house, which I was only able up get because, when we got married, our parents and family helped raise 10k instead of having a large wedding. Add our 20k in savings that we were only able to get because we lived with my parents, and we were able to put a down payment on the house. Thanks to crazy house prices, we look well off. On paper.

We have less than 1k in savings, so any surprise bill or breakdown might have us having to take a loan. I've been learning how to fix and repair everything we own. Basically me, every time something breaks. I spent the last 6 months doing maintenance on our 2 vehicles. Transmission filters, brakes, radiator coolant, diff oil, etc. I realized I've become my grandpa who drove a 35 year old POS, but kept it running well.

I seriously don't know how us regular ppl are supposed to better our lives when everything is predatory and something as simple a credit score fucks you.

Regarding my FICO score, the details on my utilization percentage says it makes up approx 30% of the score, and as you can see in the screenshot above, that highlighted as a positive, not a negative.

The score I see in the Chase app is my VantageScore from Experion, a different credit agency. Not sure what their max is but 826 is an excellent score too.

As far as carrying a balance goes on my credit card, we do not. We use it for most purchases and pay it off in full at the end of the month. So while it has a balance month-to-month, and makes up most of our utilization, nothing carries over and we pay no interest but instead get cash back. We have high limits on most cards so that keeps our % utilization low, which really is an advantage.

On our recommendation most of our adult kids do the same re: using the credit card as a debit and paying it off monthly. I know at least 3 have their scores in 800s too. If you have the discipline, having the high limit with a low utilization seems to be advantageous.

I meant to add I wouldn't trust Wells Fargo with anything given their corrupt & recent history. Doing the opposite of what they suggest is probably better with nothing else to go on.

You've been saying the same bad advice up and down this thread.

If you reliably pay your credit card bills in full by the due date, your score climbs and climbs. Not instantly, over time. Reliability isn't a one-off.

If you cancel your credit card, you have less evidence that other institutions are happy to lend to you, and your score could go down.

If you apply for a new credit card, your score can go down because that's also what people who are running out of money do, not because your borrowing to limit percentage is low.

The highest credit scores are for people who have been loaned plenty of money, and who always make their payments.

Deliberately causing them to charge you interest just makes you poorer and does not show that you're a good risk to loan to. It's the front door for ballooning debt, and that's what they want none of - people who get declared bankrupt or have other debt interventions are a massive loss to them, and what they want to avoid like the plague.

The bigger impact than credit utilization would be the hard inquiry that they use to determine whether to give you the card as well as the avg age of accounts. Low credit utilization may drop your score an extremely tiny amount (only like 1 or 2 points) but the new inquiry and lowering avg age of accounts is a much bigger impact (tens to dozens of pts drop)

Credit utilization /= carrying a balance. I put most purchases and payments on CCs, pay them off completely every month, and my credit utilization is typically something like 10% without paying a cent in interest, and I have an excellent credit score.

From years and years of first-hand experience, there may be a swing of a couple 10s of points when you get closer to that 30% utilization, but it has nothing to do with whether you are carrying a balance and paying interest. Further, that 20 or 30 points basically background noise when it comes to qualifying for new credit.

People get so fucking hung up on whether this or that will change your score by 15 points and how that signals some grand conspiracy. Open a line of credit or two, use it responsibly to demonstrate that you can manage access to that credit--pay on time and in full--it really is that simple.

This is incorrect and I'm not sure why you're trying to die on this hill everywhere in this thread. Look bro, of you're upset you're carrying a balance and you didn't have to be because someone lied to you, I get that. But when you're confronted with real facts, you're supposed to reevaluate the situation.

Credit cards also report monthly. What balance you have when they report, may not be what it is when you pay your bill. So if your limit is $1,000 and they report when your account has $1,000 spent, theyre reporting 100% utilization. But if report day is 3 days before you make your payment of $1,000 it's still being reported that way and not $0.

Yeah, I know. I just wanted the guy to consider if they were being an asshole for a few minutes.

I can totally recognize the fact that I'm lucky to have parents who are doing financially well and are willing to provide most of my basic needs while I finish college, which allows me to have a good credit score as I really only have to pay for gas, car stuff, and miscellaneous things.

But I can also pat myself on the back at least for not blowing through my cash and maxing my cards on stupid shit like cars & designer clothes.

And besides, it's not like anyone gets a prize for winning the "Struggle Olympics" I just want to not be miserable in the future, and I'll take anything I can to reach that goal.