topic Re: Question about credit card utilization in Credit Cards

Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 21:20:48 GMT

I have 3 credit cards and the CL combined is $11,950 (10k, 1500k, 450) Last month I allowed $2400 carry over and my utilization was 22%, but my credit report said the balance was too high. This month I paid the balance off and allowed $107 carryover and my utilization was 1% and too low. What is a good amount to carry over without being penalize or considered high risk borrower?

Re: Question about credit card utilization

SpiceIslander — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 21:44:03 GMT

The consensus here (MyFico) is 10% or just under. Elsewhere, the magic number is no more than 30%.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 21:48:04 GMT

For credit score optimization (to apply for new credit), 1-9% usually works best according to veteran myfico members. If you're not planning to apply and just want to avoid lender's attention then <30% is most definitely safe.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

baller4life — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 21:51:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
For credit score optimization (to apply for new credit), 1-9% usually works best according to veteran myfico members. If you're not planning to apply and just want to avoid lender's attention then <30% is most definitely safe.

Not necessarily safe. I was under 20% util when I got cld by Barclays.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:31:01 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
For credit score optimization (to apply for new credit), 1-9% usually works best according to veteran myfico members. If you're not planning to apply and just want to avoid lender's attention then <30% is most definitely safe.
Not necessarily safe. I was under 20% util when I got cld by Barclays.

That's nuts of Barclays right there

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:40:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This month I paid the balance off and allowed $107 carryover and my utilization was 1% and too low.

Where did it say 1% was too low? I don't think I've ever seen that before...

Re: Question about credit card utilization

takeshi74 — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:11:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What is a good amount to carry over without being penalize or considered high risk borrower?

All depends on credit profile but generally the lower the better as long as you're not allowing all 0 balances to report.

@Anonymous wrote:
Last month I allowed $2400 carry over and my utilization was 22%, but my credit report said the balance was too high. This month I paid the balance off and allowed $107 carryover and my utilization was 1% and too low.

Where are you getting these messages from? Who is providing the reports and reasons? 1% shouldn't be too low.

How are you paying off a balance and carrying it? Either you're doing one or the other.

@SpiceIslander wrote:
The consensus here (MyFico) is 10% or just under. Elsewhere, the magic number is no more than 30%.

30% is an upper limit as in "do not exceed". It is, however, not anywhere near optimal.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 00:45:55 GMT

I've been monitoring from month to month with different sites including credit karma, capital one credit tracker, cct, and etc.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 01:22:08 GMT

Each time my utilization went down my score went up a few points. Best is 1%, even when i went from 4% to 1% my score went up a few points. I have Equifax Complete. But I don't think Equifax Complete had provided my FICO score because when I was granted Discover it, the scores Discover gave me through the letter that came with the credit card package was 38 points higher.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 02:11:03 GMT

Generally speaking (and there are a few threads I've read this on; if you do a search you should be able to find some), the best way to have utilization report is to have all your cards report a zero balance except for one card that's reporting around 1%. I believe that anything below 1% is rounded up to 1%, so you could literally just have a balance of $1 if you wanted to on that last card.

Re: Question about credit card utilization

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 01:54:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Generally speaking (and there are a few threads I've read this on; if you do a search you should be able to find some), the best way to have utilization report is to have all your cards report a zero balance except for one card that's reporting around 1%. I believe that anything below 1% is rounded up to 1%, so you could literally just have a balance of $1 if you wanted to on that last card.

Usually I just let my balances report and then pay after the statement cuts (not before since then no balance is reported). 1-10% util is the desired.

However if you pay the balances each month (PIF preferably), your score isnt going to be altered much by your utilization.

For example, one month I had 10.5k report on my Arrival. I got my Experian score of 749 from amex (was previously 795).

Quite a big drop but after I PIF and the new balance reported, my Experian score went back up to 795 the next month. So your score might go down initially if your payment doesnt post yet but once it does, your score will be back where it was before..