topic Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico in Credit Cards

UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

bott6698 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:04:34 GMT

If this has already been posted in the past my apologies... I wanted to hear personal experiences of UTL % changes

and what happened to your fico scores. I have gotten very good advice from many members on what to do to my UTL to make it better and I can't wait to implement that advice on January 15th when I have some extra cash to use.

I will also post my experience on this board once the effects kick in and let you know how my fico was adjusted...

Message Edited by bott6698 on 01-04-2009 10:03 AM

Message Edited by bott6698 on 01-04-2009 10:04 AM

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:10:14 GMT

I lost 15 points on EQ (666 to 651) when my util went from 28% to 32%.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:11:07 GMT

Back in June of 08, I had a FICO of 551 (no baddies) because of my utilization at around 90%. However as I paid it down over time and reached about 5% util, my score went all the way up to the 700's. It was a great feeling and taught me a huge lesson when it comes managing money.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

marty56 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:09:47 GMT

1% - 9% util - no change

0% util - lost 6 points on EX

This is on 1 CC reporting a balAnce. I loose points if more than 1 report,

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

bott6698 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:41:04 GMT

Wow Chop. This gives me a lot of hope. Right now I am showing 89% so maybe I will hit 700's also hehe

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

niecey89 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:46:24 GMT

@bott6698 wrote:
Wow Chop. This gives me a lot of hope. Right now I am showing 89% so maybe I will hit 700's also hehe

Bott6698, it can happen. I was in the same boat as you back in July08. As you can see by my signature I am in the mid 600s. I went from 89-90% to now I am at about 1-3% UTL. A lot of cutting back(budget) and determination.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:02:52 GMT

@bott6698 wrote:
If this has already been posted in the past my apologies... I wanted to hear personal experiences of UTL % changes
and what happened to your fico scores. I have gotten very good advice from many members on what to do to my UTL to make it better and I can't wait to implement that advice on January 15th when I have some extra cash to use.
I will also post my experience on this board once the effects kick in and let you know how my fico was adjusted...

As you can see by my signature, my scores have gone up this year. I had a trial version of scorewatch and I think my EX score was a little lower than in the signature, but the only thing that changed in that time was my util % going down. Part of it was I've been paying off a lot of CC debt and I've gotten some pretty good CLI's this year as I paid my debt down. In April my util % was about 24-25%. In November it was somewhere around 9%.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:48:39 GMT

i only check one of my reports regularly (experian) the others i pull once every 6 months or so. but i was sitting at a 673 with 85-95% available credit for the longest time. my score dropped 10 points when my available credit went down to 63% and i oddly gained 4 pts by letting one of my cards report a $9 balance after reporting zero for the last 6 months (i usually pay this card in full every month) So essentually i took a 6 pt drop with a 37% utilization increase.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:21:59 GMT

@bott6698 wrote:
Wow Chop. This gives me a lot of hope. Right now I am showing 89% so maybe I will hit 700's also hehe

Theres always hope and anything is possible! Good luck and keep us updated!

Message Edited by Chopbrocoli on 01-05-2009 11:21 AM

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:45:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Back in June of 08, I had a FICO of 551 (no baddies) because of my utilization at around 90%. However as I paid it down over time and reached about 5% util, my score went all the way up to the 700's. It was a great feeling and taught me a huge lesson when it comes managing money.

That is a good story!!! I hope I can have that kind of success once my cards age some more. Congrats Chopbrocoli!

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:01:20 GMT

Chopbrocoli wrote:

@bott6698 wrote:
Wow Chop. This gives me a lot of hope. Right now I am showing 89% so maybe I will hit 700's also hehe

Theres always hope and anything is possible! Good luck and keep us updated!

The best things about util are that assuming you have the money to pay down/ off your balances, it's generally the biggest factor in your scoring, it's the quickest to turn around, and it's the factor over which you have the most control!

Sure beats writing GW's.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

smallfry — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:14:45 GMT

Utilization is very important. But. Make sure you are mindful of adding new accounts. They are a score killer. My scores are only marginally higher with 1-2% utilization as opposed to 56% utilization. AAofA went from 5 to 3 years. Don't apply unless you need the credit. Lesson learned the hard way.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

bott6698 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:26:01 GMT

Small fry I know. My AAOA dropped from 5 years to 2 because of many new accounts this year but also because a 7 year old CO fell off and that totally killed me. It was really weird I lost much points immedediately when I lost my CO and last collection which I thought would have been the opposite but it crushed my AAOA..

LOL on the GW's I feel ya and 100% agree UTL is the best problem to have because it can be fixed without much effort...

I do have to say from the time I joined Myfico I knocked off an enormous amount of collections and errors and made the mistake of getting too excited and getting a handful of credit cards and racking them up but now I have learned and will pay them all down and get back to sanity LOL...

I will post my results when I pay down my cards. When I use the EQ simulatior it shows I will jump from 625 to 725 with my plan but we will see what actually happens...

Message Edited by bott6698 on 01-05-2009 09:26 PM

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:19:11 GMT

I lost 25 points (EX) when I went from 26% util to 32% util. (699 to 674)

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

jim5518 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:05:26 GMT

My score dropped 101 points by going from 12% to 89% on 4 accounts.I expected it as in Dec I buy everything on my cards to sell on Ebay

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

bott6698 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:44:04 GMT

wow 101 point drop wow. I suppose on the flip side if you went from 89 to 12 the opposite would happen so I guess that's good,

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

aw22151 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:00:11 GMT

Bott, I'm a bit more skeptical about the whole reverse affects theory of util and the way that FICO analyzes it. With me it's always seemed to be one step forward and two steps back. I've experienced significant score drops with increased util and only minimal increases as my util goes decreases... BUT I'm sure that it may vary depending on our specific overall credit profile DNA.

That's just my two cents

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

fishbjc — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:39:36 GMT

I plunked down about 7K and gained 2 points, wahoo Still the $$$ saved on interest is worth quite a bit to me.

HTSU...I did so enjoy the *high* when I received a positive answer to my gw.

Re: UTL %'s and the changes in your fico

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:55:39 GMT

fishbjc wrote:

HTSU...I did so enjoy the *high* when I received a positive answer to my gw.

Congrats on pulling one off!

I'm currently 0-for-2764 or something.