<prompt> Human: For the past year, my credit score has according to CreditKarma, anyway has been decreasing. I paid my truck loan early last fall, bought a motorcycle over the winter and paid it off last month, and paid off one credit card with a 1000 balance last month. I had another card that I opened when I was 18 that was tied to my first student checking account 26 now. It had a low limit that I never bothered to increase because I didnt care for the bank, a mediocre interest rate, and I only used it to pay my trucks sat radio subscription. I moved the sub to my other card for simplicity, and the next month the bank on the old car lowered my limit to 300 and then cancelled the card. My credit rating went down almost 25 points. I understand that cancelling that card was not good. I didnt ask them to do it, though. I was going to put stuff like gas on it every so often to keep it active. Now, I pay the balance on my Visa monthly, and no other debt. I want to buy a house in the next year, and at this rate, my credit will be in the mid 600s by the time that happens. I make 70k a year, full time job. No major debts, monthly bills are around 800month. Saving money well, and adding to my 401k. Wat do, PF? Thanks.Assistant: If youre planning to buy a house in a year, you should probably look into getting a real credit score and not rely on Credit Karma. Paying off open debt can decrease your score a little this case its almost certainly because it lowered average credit age by a good bit, but generally if youre continuing to use credit responsibly then your score should be in good shape for anything youll need it for. The major factors that you can change in the short term are utilization Id say shoot for about 10-15 and making sure you have all payments on-time to avoid negative marks.If its any comfort, I recently got my real FICO and its almost 770. CK lists my score as 690-something. So you may well be fine, youre just seeing the limitations of CKs FAKO. Human: Oh, I didnt know CK could vary so much. Well, that makes me feel better, for sure. Thanks!  <response>: My experience with CK is that it correlates in the sense that things which raise your FICO will also raise your CK, but that the absolute amount can vary considerably.A major reason mine is wrong is because my credit usage stays below 1 of my limit and CK reads this as 0 utilization while real scores properly interpret it as 0. 