Recently my credit score dropped and I couldn't understand why. After reading these posts, I think it may have been due to a lump sum payment that I made on my mortgage. I did a recast of my mortgage and lowered my monthly payment 50% by paying a large lump sum. You would think this would improve my credit rating, but evidently it dropped it since nothing else changed. If that truly is the reason, it's stupid. Don't we all want to be debt free at some point? Shouldn't we be rewarded for it?