The Truth About Credit Cards.com

A friend of mine recently notified me that his credit score plummeted nearly 100 points from the last time it was reported.

He is enrolled in a credit monitoring program, so he receives alerts when his credit scores fluctuate.

Naturally, I asked him why he thought his credit score would have dropped so dramatically in such a short period of time.

He was quick to explain that he hadn’t paid any bills late, and that nothing negative was reported on his credit report.

We dug a little deeper and he began to tell me about recent large purchases he had made on several of his credit cards.

It turns out he spent about $15,000 in the matter of a couple weeks, which was nearly 50% of his total aggregate credit line of roughly $30,000.

Bingo! That was the problem. He essentially used up half of his available credit in a matter of weeks, a big red flag to his creditors and the credit bureaus.

Think of it this way:

Imagine if you knew someone who was going around asking people to borrow money for a new investment.

And that someone had already borrowed $15,000 from five other people.

There’s a good chance you’d be less apt to offer that someone money knowing the person already had $15,000 in previous outstanding debt.

That’s the same way creditors think, and the reason why credit bureaus depress credit scores of borrowers with high amounts of outstanding debt.

In fact, 30% of the Fico score determination is based on “credit utilization”, which relates to the amount owed on accounts, number of accounts with balances, and proportion of credit limits used.

When my friend went on that spending spree, other potential creditors were given a veritable memo to limit new credit in the form of a much lower credit score, based on the assumption that someone with a greater amount of debt will be less likely to pay back additional debt that is accrued.

Though his credit score was depressed because of his recent spending spree, over time his scores will rise back up so long as he sheds the debt and make payments on time.

So it’s really just a temporary depression, but one that can cost you a significant amount of money if you apply for new credit or important loans around the time of drop.

That’s why it’s always important to avoid large purchases before and during important transactions such as auto leases and mortgages.