Is utilization figured twice or singularly?

[Lucid08]

I thought I was clear on this, but after reading some more posts I'm a little confused.

If I have 2 cards with differing CL's, is utilization calculated across both cards for FICO scoring purposes, or is each account used as a singular utilization for scoring purposes?

Example: I have 2 cards; One with a 500.00 CL(yes, I kept the Orchard after I got a CLI before activation ), and the other a 2500.00 CL. Thats a total of 3000 CL combined. Will my score be affected moreso if I carry more than 9% combined on both cards at any given time, or if I use, say, more than 9% on only one card?

[haulingthescoreup]

Both total util and individual util is looked at.

Your scores probably won't be affected, or not much, if one of the cards is a bit higher than 9%. But if you have one at 1% and the other at 80%, you will probably see a score change.

So if you had $400 on the $500 card (80% ) and $25 on the $2500 card (1% ), your total util would be less than 15%, but I would expect at least one of your CRA's to whine about the high util on the one card. (This is one of the true PITA's about low CL cards.)

You might want to work it so that the Orchard always reports $0 (use it some but pay it off immediately) and the other reports $225 or less (9% or less.)

This being said, some members have reported no adverse score changes when one card was near maxed but total util was low. But I sure heard from EX when a BT posted on a new card with a util of 84%, even though total util was relatively low.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 07-20-2008 05:37 AM

[Lucid08]

Thanks for the info.

So the 9% rule still seems to apply, regardless of total CL or individual util on any certain card.