Credit Card Utilization Question

[Anonymous]

Ok, I'm looking to do some last minute credit score boosting to try to get the best rate on a home. I'm accomplishing this by paying down some credit card debt, and I have a question about credit card utilization.

Does FICO calculate credit card utilization by credit card, or is it an agggregate of your total available amount divided by your total utilization?

[Anonymous]

Both! your best chance at getting the highest score is to have all your cards with no balance and 1 with a balance of no more that 9%

[Anonymous]

I payed down my Chase freedom from like 1500 to 600 and my CK TU Score DROPPED 33 points with no other changes...

tippy can I ask for 2nd best option as outlined by you below?

your best chance at getting the highest score is to have all your cards with no balance and 1 with a balance of no more that 9%

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I payed down my Chase freedom from like 1500 to 600 and my CK TU Score DROPPED 33 points with no other changes...

tippy can I ask for 2nd best option as outlined by you below?

your best chance at getting the highest score is to have all your cards with no balance and 1 with a balance of no more that 9%

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Credit karma is a vantage score (fako) not a FICO score.. basically useless. your FICO score probably increased. 

[Anonymous]

I've read what the BEST case scenario is, but won't be paying off all of the cards until a few months after the home closing.  I'm just trying to figure out if I need to pay more towards the highest utilized card (which is a 0% interest card), or if I can pay towards any card I want and my total utilization would go down (and my credit score would still go up).  So, which is more advantageous paying down the card with the highest utilization or can I pay on any card and it just matters that my total utilization is going down?

[HiLine]

Since individual utilization also matters, pay down the highest utilization balance first.

[Anonymous]

Look at what cards have the highest utilization and start to pay those down first.  Always best to keep each card at 10% utilization. I have a few cards that I use throughout the month, however, I will zero those out before the statement gets cut to avoid them being reported with a balance.  I do have one card that reports monthly.

[vanillabean]

Fine-tuning your utilization is like the diet drink you have with your double burger.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've read what the BEST case scenario is, but won't be paying off all of the cards until a few months after the home closing.  I'm just trying to figure out if I need to pay more towards the highest utilized card (which is a 0% interest card), or if I can pay towards any card I want and my total utilization would go down (and my credit score would still go up).  So, which is more advantageous paying down the card with the highest utilization or can I pay on any card and it just matters that my total utilization is going down?

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Then, you are in what is known as a "more complicated" scenario. Which cards do you have? What are their credit limits and balances? Which is the 0% APR card? What is the timing of the expiration of the 0% vs the timing of when you intend to shop for the mortgage?

The generalizations you get from a simple question are true: Optimization is with only one card reporting 1% to 9% balance. However, in the real world, optimization is sometimes difficult to achieve, and so "making the best of it" seems like a pretty good option.

So, the more details you can provide to put some meat on your question, the more appropriate the answer you will get

[Anonymous]

Cards with balances:

Chase (19% utilized 15.99% interest)

Discover (90% utilized 0% interest)

Bank of America (76% utilized 0% interest)

Chase Southwest Card (39% utilized 15.99% interest)

I had been paying off the cards with the highest interest rates, but switched recently to the highest utilization.  I'll be paying off the 90% utilized Chase card on Thursday.  I read somewhere that there is an advantage of paying cards down past a certain utilization (10%, 30%, and 90% I think were the numbers).  Is is better for my next step to be to focus payments on the Chase Southwest card (since it's near the 30% mark), or should I focus on the Bank of America card since its utililization is higher?

Also note, I have several other cards with a 0 balance.  My total combined credit utilization is currently 31%, and will be dropping to 27% on Thursday.