Valued Member
shorttough
Posts: 40
Registered: ‎11-07-2012
Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

hi,

i have 1 credit card at 90% and 2 others at 80%. I recently applied for 2 credit cards. and have a limit of 8000 and 4000.

 

should i distribute the balances evenly so that all 5 CC have lower than 50 or at 50% and take a hit with  "Too many Account With Balances".

 

or just leave them as they are.

 

Thanks

Moderator
Shogun
Posts: 7,374
Registered: ‎04-15-2011
Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

The one at 90% is considered maxed out.  You should be careful with that, sometime they will balance chase you down and drop the CL.


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Valued Contributor
beb86
Posts: 1,114
Registered: ‎10-31-2011
Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

If your new cards have lower interest and 0% BT I would try to BT to your new card(s) and pay down asap...

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Valued Member
shorttough
Posts: 40
Registered: ‎11-07-2012
Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

i have till February to improve my score as much as i can, so i'm really looking for quick improvement.

Current Score as of now is 708 Equifax

Mega Contributor
RobertEG
Posts: 14,608
Registered: ‎03-19-2007
Re: Individual CC utilization vs. No. of CC with Balances

FairIsaac has not, to my knowlege, disclosed the respective weightings given to individ card utils and % with balance.

From anecdotal postings, it appears that % with balance is lower, so I would put more focus on maintaining individ card utils lower.

 

Aside from FICO scoring implications, extended higher % utils on cards are often a trigger for potential credit limit reductions by creditors.

Thus, maintaining high individ card utils might lead to future CL decreases, resulting in reduction of card balances not providing a reduction in % util on the card.