Credit Bureau's utilization "chart"

[granny031350]

I read a while ago that the 3 credit bureau's each had their own "formula" for utilization.  i.e. Transunion likes 1/2 of your accounts at zero (or more) Experian looks at overall, etc

Does anyone remember what the mix is?

I am starting now to pay down my cc balances and have been paying off to zero on the lowest balances first.  I have 11 open accounts and 2 closed.  I now have 3 of my cards at zero.  So just wondering

[Anonymous]

I have never heard that...sorry I can't help. but I have a question, since I am getting ready to start the same exact plan as you. Since you have started paying them off, have you had an increase in your score? How much?

[granny031350]

I will keep you posted.  I just started.  I just paid off my Target 2 days before the statement cut and they charged me 1.81 in interest anyway.  LOL  So I just paid that off and now will have to wait until next month to see what it does to my scores.  But my goal is to begin to pay off at least 1 or 2 a month. 

I also just sent a payment to Kohl's which pays that off as well.  That will give me 3 out of 11 open accounts, and I have 2 closed cards with balances (I know those are hurting as well) and 1 of those is on the list for January.

But I remember a post by one of the guru's that said that TU looks at "total number of zero accounts, verus those reporting with a balance" and Experian looks at overal utilization in their scoring formula, etc so that is what I was looking for to see.

Right now, my TU is 651 with 4 PR reporting and 1 neg account (IIB)

Experian and Equifax are both at 605 (stuck for several months) but Equifax is still reporting my student loans as negative while Experian I have NO negative accounts, just the 4 PR. 

So I am trying to get close to 700 by April with paying down all the cards.

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, this might be what you've seen. And TU seems twitchier about the number of accounts with balances, while EQ and EX let me have one more than TU before they slam me.

Starting goals --getting lower is often even bettter:

--half or fewer of all open accounts reporting balances (this includes mortgages, installment loans, LOC's as well as CC's)
--fewer than half of all open revolving accounts reporting balances (CC's plus lower-CL LOC's)
--overall util at 9% of total CL or less
--do let one report a balance

I don't know that anyone has gotten it down to a CRA-specific formula. Also, this varies by credit profile. For instance, I'm getting burned for having 3-4 cards with balances instead of just one, even though I have 14 open accounts, eleven of which are CC's. I'm nowhere near the numbers from the formulas above, but I'm losing points briskly until everything updates again. (My bad, I got distracted over the holidays and didn't pay attention to statement dates.)

[granny031350]

ok, I just spent the last hour analyzing my equifax credit report.  They are figuring right now that my utilization is 56 percent (3744 out of 6200 available)  They are NOT even counting the 2 cards that I have closed, with balances into this figure.  (This must be a FICO calculation, not equifax)

In December, because I went out and bought myself a new ring (kay's) for Christmas (and to keep my account going) my utilization will actually on change by 23.00 even though I am paying off 2 accounts and lowering balances on everything but my Kay's account (which will show an 800.00 increase. .  but I am sooooooo worth it )

However in January, this is where the real gains will be seen for me.  My utilization will drop to about 40 percent because I will have 2 more cards paid off and lower balances.

So January will be the beginning of the score increases for me, I do believe.

Then I will see which bureau likes the less than 1/2 with balances reporting and which bureau's look at overall utilization.

[RobertEG]

To be accurate, if you are getting true FICO scores from the CRAs, they are not independently generating your scores.   Each CRA licenses the use of the FICO scorng algorithm from FairIsaac, and if it is sold as a FICO score, it must be based on the FairIsaac algorithm.  The actual score is generated in-house by the CRA, but not with their own algorithms, if a true FICO score.  FairIsaac does not generate credit scores, they only sell the software for their customers to do it based on their data.

CRAs also independently market their own scores, but these are not FICO scores that you get from myFIco.

The rub even with FICOs is on two fronts.  The first is that the data in each CRA file is usually different.

The second rub is that FairIsaac generates and sells to each CRA a sligthy different scoring algorithm, based upon consulatation with the CRA of what their customer wants to emphasize.  Per FairIsaac, this can result in a score deviation of up to 30 points in FICO scores between the three CRAs, even if their credit files are identical. 

As for knowing what those scoring algorithms are, forget it.  They are closely held trade secrets, and will never be divulged by FairIsaac or the CRAs.

[marty56]

EX doesnt like high util on a single card even if your total util is 9% or less.  For some reason I loose 1 point on EQ these days if 2 cards report a balance instead of one.

IMHO, while it may not be easy to do, a single CC reporting a balance of 9% or less should leave you good to go with all 3 CRAs.