GregB wrote:
From what I have seen from my reports:
You are getting dinged for one account being at 50% IF that puts you into the next BUCKET.
You are getting dinged for the overall being at 36% IF that puts you into the next BUCKET.
Examples of "buckets" that seem to be reported are: 1-9% utilization and 80-100% utilization. I don't know where the buckets are in between 10 and 80 but there seem to be "several" but not "many". Perhaps someone has kept track of this?
A perfect example is when I had an $800 balance on a $12K limit card. I paid the balance but they generated a statement with $3.40 interest. ANY balance gets rounded up to the 1-9% bucket. My score didn't jump up until I paid off the $3.40 and the CC reported $0.00 balance next month.
Also the answer to your question of "Either" or "Or" is "Both".
Util doesn't determine buckets. If it did, we would be getting poured in and out of buckets every time another CC updates.
Buckets are driven by presence of a serious derog or public record, presence of a serious derog AND a public record (hope I've got that right), and varying ages.
There are different tiers, for lack of a better term, for revolving util. Under 10%, 10 - 19%, 20 - 29%, 30 - 49%, 50 - 84% or so, and then above that, which equals maxed.
I wouldn't give you a nickel for the accuracy of these ranges, but it's something like that, from what we read when we compare notes. And many of us (who obviously have absolutely nothing better to do with our lives) spend way too much time figuring our own personal sweet spots, which might be 1%, 2%, etc.
caught a typo too late: I meant to type 49%, not 45%
Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 04-03-2009 04:00 PM
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
