I have worked very hard over the last six months to pay off several thousands of dollars in credit card debt and paid an installment loan off early to bring my credit score up. I have just recently made it into fair score territory on all three bureaus. Transunion achieved this last but at least achieved it. My most recent change was due to a credit card going up $71 dollars and a hard inquiry. This change was a decrease of 43 points. How is this possible? Why have I worked so hard paying off thousands over the last six months to have half my progress taken away by one request for the credit I improved? Why improve credit if it is going to do so much damage to show it off?