Credit Usage Percentage impact on Score

[Anonymous]

I know credit usage percentage is a major factor in your FICO score.  Unfortunately, I'm up at about 52%, which is hurting my score  I went for one of those long term teaser rates and used a CC finance a year of my daughters college expenses, not realizing the high revolving debt would impact my credit score, even though the interest rate is great.  Now I'm considering applying to refi my mortgage and my score is hovering at 700..  I could benefit from a small pop.   Does anyone know if the FICO scoring algorithm adjusts score uniformly as this percentage changes, or are there set points where you get a bump, such as less than 50%, vs above 50%. I'm wondering if my score would increase significantly if I send in a supplemental payment and try to get down below 50%.  I know 50% is better than 53%, but is there anything significant about breaking that 50% threshold?  Anyone know? 

[pizzadude]

Hi, and welcome to the forums !

You are correct that revolving utilization is a major part of your FICO score ~ and certainly as you pay down your credit cards your FICO score will go up, assuming that all other things on your reports are still good.   In terms of specific thresholds, it really is difficult to predict, as we say around here, your mileage may vary....YMMV.

I personally haven't seen any evidence that decreasing utilization below certain threshold will yield larger FICO gains, i.e.  decreasing from 51% to 49% versus 58 to 56%.

FICO hasn't released any specifics about this, so my best guess is that the scoring model is more straight lined with utilization.   Others may have individual evidence where they have seen large gains below certain thresholds like 30% or 10% for example, but it is really hard to know how it would apply in your situation.

[GregB]

You have a decent chance of seeing a bump if you get it down to reporting 49%. Just don't forget that Util rounds UP.

If you don't see a bump at that point, you have a better chance of seeing a bump before you get down to 35% or so. Probably before 40%.

If you are going to try this, it is important to be sure about how your util is being calculated on your FICO report and that all the balances and limits are being included in their calculation that you expect. Hopefully, you are reading the util off your report and it is listed as #1 or #2 in factors negatively affecting your score.

You are using an EQ FICO obtained from here so you know you are dealing with the real thing, right?