Similar experience I opened a Citi Executive card with a $5k limit, charged close to the limit, Citi billed the annual fee, which took the balance over the limit, and this caused my credit score to drop below 800, and it stayed there for several months, even though I paid the balance in full. (Sorry, I do not recall specific percentages or scores, but confirming that reported high utilization on a single account had a strong impact on my FICO scores.)