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Does MyFico round up or down?

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ucdcrew
Contributor

Does MyFico round up or down?

The card I let report is US Bank - it has CL of 1500.  I paid it down to 11 dollars which is 0.7 percent - assuming myFico would round up.  On the front page (when I got my alert that my balance changed) its now reporting utilization of 0% (and I dropped 3 points on EX).  TU and EQ have not reported yet.  Next month try to let 15 dollars report for an even 1%?  I didn't think it was that picky, do I need to go up to 2%?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Does MyFico round up or down?

FICO rounds up.  Even a CC balance of $5 against a total credit limit of $50,000 would be rounded up to 1% from the perspective of the actual FICO algorithm on the back end.  For some reason, however, the "summary" page on the front end of many credit monitoring systems (CMS) will round down or round to the nearest integer, causing small utilizations to be rendered as 0%.

 

Can you confirm for us which CMS you are using?  Is it the myFICO Ultimate?  Is it Credit Check Total?  Credit Karma?  I have heard that CCT and Karma both render small utilizations as 0% (on their summary page).  I didn't know that myFICO does that too (if that is the CMS you are using).

 

PS.  The fact that FICO always rounds up does not only affect tiny utilizations (rounded up to 1%).  It also affects utilizations close to 9 or 10%.  You have probably heard that you get the best scoring benefit from total utilization if you keep it under 10%, right?

 

That's true, but watch the math closely on that.  If your precise utilization on a given month is 9.02%, then FICO will round that up to 10%.  And 10% is not under 10%.  Therefore if you want to keep your utilization under 10%, that actually means keeping it under 8.99%.

Message 2 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Does MyFico round up or down?

Good info from CGID and spot on as always.  It appears that the OP is using myFICO.  It's important to understand that myFICO is not synonymous with FICO, as in your scores.  I think it's quite misleading when their summary/overview software rounds a utilization percentage down to 0% as it suggests that the FICO algorithm would do the same when it has been proven that isn't the case.  You're just fine with your $7 reported balance, as it will be scored as 1% utilization.

Message 3 of 4
ucdcrew
Contributor

Re: Does MyFico round up or down?

Yes, I am using the MyFico Ultimate product.  It sounds like the 'running total' algorithm is a bit different than what I'll get when I pull the 3B again.  I wasn't all that concerned with the small drop it reported (like 2 points) since I'd have to go down at least 40 to worry about having an issue with my mortgage rate.  Thanks for the clarification.

Message 4 of 4
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