70% utilization boost

[gettingcreditagain]

I guess you could also call it the 70% utilization penalty. But I'm more a glass half full guy.

I had heard that anything reporting as over 70% shows the TL maxed out and penalizes more points for the balance. I set out to test this with my Barclays apple finance card. I have $2k limit with them and am sitting on top of a 0% financing offer for the ladies MBP. I paid the balance down to $1399.99 or exactly under 70% util for this statement.

As luck would have it I had a credit alert several days this week.

Monday I was at a 612 yesterday I was a 623 down from a 625 on Tuesday (my new amex acct hit and had a very high balance short statement month I guess). This afternoon I had an alert my score increased to a 632 as Barclays had reported the new balance. The reason given was "a high limit account has less of an impact on your score"

Pretty cool 8 point gain for the extra $3 I paid last month just to be below 70%. EQ is my lowest score I'm thrilled to see the jump this week. May be ahead of the pace for a VA loan this year.

Happy Crediting to all!

[user5387]

The figure cited for being maxed out is typically 70-90%, and I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone.  It might depend on what bucket you're in.

[RobertEG]

Also, the potential impact of high util can, if maintained for a period of time, trigger a pssible review by the creditor of a credit limit decrease, thus reducing their potental risk.

Occasional bumps are expected, but prolonged high util might indicate that you are living on credit, and have thus become a higher risk consumer.

[Darrell82]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Also, the potential impact of high util can, if maintained for a period of time, trigger a pssible review by the creditor of a credit limit decrease, thus reducing their potental risk.

Occasional bumps are expected, but prolonged high util might indicate that you are living on credit, and have thus become a higher risk consumer.

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Very good Point. I dont even like to get close to 50%. I tend to try and keep balances lower then the 15% overall mark. Just incase i want to jump into a loan for a house i would not have to wait for my balances to report a lower balance to  apply.

[sarkell]

Im trying to get to this point overall.  Im at 85% right now. But dh just added a citi card with 7k limit so overall I will be there so should see a boost.  After march I'll only have 4 cards with balanances of 12 all 90%.  So next goal is to get those down below 70%