topic Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

shorttough — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:19:58 GMT

hi,

i have 1 credit card at 90% and 2 others at 80%. I recently applied for 2 credit cards. and have a limit of 8000 and 4000.

should i distribute the balances evenly so that all 5 CC have lower than 50 or at 50% and take a hit with "Too many Account With Balances".

or just leave them as they are.

Thanks

Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

Shogun — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:48:24 GMT

The one at 90% is considered maxed out. You should be careful with that, sometime they will balance chase you down and drop the CL.

Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

beb86 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 02:23:53 GMT

If your new cards have lower interest and 0% BT I would try to BT to your new card(s) and pay down asap...

Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

shorttough — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:37:22 GMT

i have till February to improve my score as much as i can, so i'm really looking for quick improvement.

Current Score as of now is 708 Equifax

Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

RobertEG — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:12:48 GMT

FairIsaac has not, to my knowlege, disclosed the respective weightings given to individ card utils and % with balance.

From anecdotal postings, it appears that % with balance is lower, so I would put more focus on maintaining individ card utils lower.

Aside from FICO scoring implications, extended higher % utils on cards are often a trigger for potential credit limit reductions by creditors.

Thus, maintaining high individ card utils might lead to future CL decreases, resulting in reduction of card balances not providing a reduction in % util on the card.