would a 1% utilization rate hurt my score?

[Anonymous]

I typically kept my utilization at about 5-10% and saw big credit score increases. The new cards I've been approved for have much higher credit lines though, and was wondering if 1% is just as beneficial, or would it begin to hurt my score as if it were 0%?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

1% isn't 0% you're OK. Not likely to see an improvement dropping from 4 to 1 but it won't hurt you.

[Anonymous]

1% is good. 

[Anonymous]

I think that some people here have documented cases where an obscenely low balance (e.g. $2.50) was treated somehow (by FICO or the CCC or the CRA) as if it were zero.  But as long as a CC balance is $4 or more (I believe that was the agreed threshhold) then there would be no chance of that happening.  Revelate was the person who mentioned this -- he can correct me if I am misremembering.

There's a deeper question, however, than whether a 1% would hurt you more than (say) a 2% or 3%.  And that is: would that damage be fleeting or longer lasting?  That to me is the important question.  The answer of course is Fleeting.  Once you know that, then you can answer yourself the question of how 1% impacts your particular profile (over and against 2% or 3% or 4%).  Just take it for a test drive and find out.

[takeshi74]

My wife's scores are higher than my own and part of the reason is that her utilization is 1% where mine is 8%.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I typically kept my utilization at about 5-10% and saw big credit score increases. The new cards I've been approved for have much higher credit lines though, and was wondering if 1% is just as beneficial, or would it begin to hurt my score as if it were 0%?

Thank you!

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I generally post a 1% to 3% monthly overall utilization but I have posted up to 6%. No change in Fico 8 scores associated with aggregate utilization in the 1% to 6% range over the last 18 months. The sweet spot for overall utilization appears to be 1% to 9%. There may be a profile (scorecard) dependency for this factor on score shift magnitude but likely not threshold percentages. 

Scores are based the most recent utilization percentage posted. No lingering impact like with hard credit inquiries or late payments. If you want to keep balances down, go ahead and let your aggregate utilization drop to the 1% to 2% range - you should be fine. Test it out and report back.

Note: If you have new cards, you should have associated hard inquiries and these often result in a score drop. So, short term if your utilization goes down and your score drops - it probably is due to inquiries, not lower % utilization.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that 1% utilization rate will hurt your credit score. I think that untill 8% will not going to do it.

[joem1cha3l]

no it will not.

[EW800]

I've gone as low as about $3 reporting on about an $80K credit line and have had no problem.  The couple of times that I let $0 report I really got whacked, but in at least my case letting even single digits report is not a problem for true FICO scores.  If I remember correctly, there is one FAKO model, I think it was credit.com although I could be wrong, calculated my $3 reporting as 0% so I had a big drop, but FICO scores seem to be okay with it.  It appears to me that FICO counts anything at $1 or more as at least 1%.