@hwturner17 wrote:I'm currently paying down a lot of credit card debt and keep thinking about keeping my utilization below 9% once it's all paid off. Ideally, I'll pay it to 0% each month.
I was thinking that if someone only uses one card, which I do/will, and don't plan on carrying a balance, the easiest way to do it would be to make your limit on the card you use 9% of your total credit limit. That way if you had to carry a balance, you will never exceed that magic number.
So if you have $25,000 in total limits, make your daily spender have a limit of no more than $2,250, which is 9%. (unless you are going to spend more than that in a month, which I won't).
Now, I realize that if you pay off your card each month it won't matter. I also understand most people use more than one card. This is just a specific example of what I was thinking.
I will only use my AMEX BCE once everything is paid off and I won't carry a balance but, if I did carry a balance on that card, I know it will never exceed 9% of my limit.
I also like having a huge limit on cards I know i'll never be tempted to abuse like my home depot card, best buy, or my chase slate (no rewards). This is just limiting my exposure to my own bad spending habits.
Anyone do anything like this?
Nope, it is 1-9% of an individual cards limit that you let report not 1-9% of total CL on 1 card. If you were to execute what you have suggested you would drop FICO points for maxing out 1 card.
