Originally Posted by
PresskittJon
Congrats on paying off your card every month. However that is not what credit utilization refers to and this is a fairly significant factor in most people's score. Did you run up charges on a card or cards around the same time you applied for these others?
Even if you pay them off like you are supposed to, your score can suffer as you look like an increased risk.
Paying off your bills each month is indeed admirable and advisable but that does not mean there is no balance used in the score calculation. Issuers report a balance once a month generally at statement time and if you are using the card even if you pay in full you do have a balance. That balance is part of the utilization calculation. The algorithm doesn't change very often although it is different at each bureau to optimize the data structures at that bureau but the data used to calculate the score changes with each new update and with thousands of issuers reporting the data is unlikely to exactly the same with each score calculation.