Balance transfer

[Anonymous]

I have a credit card with a balance of about $5000 out of $10,000 limit, i.e. about 50%.  If I take out a new credit card which has a  credit limit of $5000 and pay off the old credit card will it improve my credit score because my balance will be only $5000 against a limit of $15,000. Or will I get dinged because I will be maxed out on my new credit card?

[Anonymous]

Maxing out the new card would count more against you than having 50% on the existing card.

If you were to get a new card for $5000, the better strategy would be to balance transfer $1650 to the new card, which would leave 33% utilization on both cards. I'm not sure that's worth the typical 3% fee, though.