Hi, Everyone!
The fact that I'm a newbie will probably be very apparent! I have tons of questions that I'd love all you knowledgable forum participants to help with, but I'll try to start gradually!
I can't garner a definitive answer from posts I've read regarding credit card balances compared to credit lines....the UTL I think I'm seeing it called....see, told you I was a newbie!
Anyway, when mention is made of utilization percentage, does this refer to total amount of credit available or per card?! I think I'm seeing conflicting answers, so maybe there's no one answer for this question.
I'm going to try asking it again anyway!
For example, credit cards, let's say 5 of them, give you a total credit line of $10K(trying to keep it in easy round figures!). 4 of the cards have $1500 CL and have balances of $100 ($6K CL total for these 4 cards with $400 total balance on all. The fifth card has $4K limit and has balance of $3200. Does this mean since $3600 is owed against a total limit of $10k the utilization is 36%..for credit scoring purposes I mean?! Or, since one card is at 80% ,it doesnt matter that the rest are less than 10%?!
I have one major credit card currently near 75% of limit that I should have down to 25% in a few months. My other cards are store cards that never go above 10% of the limits and more often have 0 balances. Even though I have 75% used on one card, I'm only using about 30% of total available credit.
Just wondering how much this might be hurting my score, and for FICO purposes, what is the "ideal" percentage for the balance/CL ratio?
Since everyone seems to be a lot more savvy than I am about all this, I look forward to any help you can provide!!
FICOS: TU 732(05-16-16) EQ '08 739( 05-16-16) EX 737 (08-17-16)