topic Re: What is considered "maxxed out"? in Credit Cards

What is considered "maxxed out"?

LS2982 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:14:54 GMT

My CU card has a rather hefty balance from 2 BT's and my truck upgrades, 5.4/9K. I know this isn't good and i'm paying a good portion of it off within the next 2 months but what % is considered to be maxxed out? I never wanna cross that threshold!

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

rtw — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:17:15 GMT

I believe that 90% uti is considered maxed out.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

webhopper — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:17:15 GMT

According to credit secure by amex (yes I know this is not fico info) a card is maxxed when you spend 90% of its available limit.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Jlu — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:18:49 GMT

Yep, > 90%

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

LS2982 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:19:55 GMT

@webhopper wrote:
According to credit secure by amex (yes I know this is not fico info) a card is maxxed when you spend 90% of its available limit.

I was surprised to see my EQ FICO not take a hit for a balance increase from this card, kinda getting spooked others will see it and throw some penalty flags

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Open123 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:21:48 GMT

To me, I consider 90% of available credit "maxed out" as opposed to just a single card.

I don't consider credit maxed out if you had $50k in available credit, but charged $800 on a $1,000 CL card.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Jlu — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:23:33 GMT

^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

flowfaster — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:24:52 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
To me, I consider 90% of available credit "maxed out" as opposed to just a single card.

I don't consider credit maxed out if you had $50k in available credit, but charged $800 on a $1,000 CL card.

That would only be 80%

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Open123 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:27:45 GMT

@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

I liked to use my BBRZ to attain premier silver status with general spending? LOL

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

LS2982 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:27:58 GMT

@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

True.....

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Jlu — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:29:23 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?
I liked to use my BBRZ to attain premier silver status with general spending? LOL

LOL

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

LS2982 — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:32:46 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?
I liked to use my BBRZ to attain premier silver status with general spending? LOL

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

DaveSignal — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:47:29 GMT

@LS2982 wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?
True.....

I've got approx $40k in total available credit and a $700 Target card that I would still use if I was in USA. I don't buy that much in one stop at Target though and have never had it near the $700, but if I wanted to buy something that cost $700, I wouldn't even think about it and would just charge it to my Target card.

EDIT: I would pay it before the statement though. My Target card has never reported a balance. I only use it for the 5% off.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:46:55 GMT

@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

Keeping a rebuilder card as a toy AU card for my DD to use as a tool for building her credit.

(By the time my new accounts finished appearing on my CRs, I should have ~40K in available credit, and I'm keeping my $750 Cap1 card.)

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:36:29 GMT

For scoring purposes, it's over 90%. I have an Old Navy card with a puny $200 limit (I use it for the discounts). It accidentally reported with a $191 balance right after I opened it, and my scores took a hit and my reports showed a negative factor of "having a card with over 90% utilization". As soon as it reported with $0, my scores went back up and that negative reason disappeared. I've had other cards report with utilization between 80% and 90%, and they didn't cause that kind of score impact or negative reason, which seems to confirm that 90% is the magic number.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

RockinRay — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:46:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

Keeping a rebuilder card as a toy AU card for my DD to use as a tool for building her credit.

(By the time my new accounts finished appearing on my CRs, I should have ~40K in available credit, and I'm keeping my $750 Cap1 card.)

Tinu - I think this is an excellent idea...

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

score_building — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 22:07:30 GMT

In practice >80-85% is maxxed out, if allowing some, not much though, wiggle room to avoid going over credit limit due to finance charges.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

cardslayer — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:22:22 GMT

@DaveSignal wrote:
@LS2982 wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?
True.....

I've got approx $40k in total available credit and a $700 Target card that I would still use if I was in USA. I don't buy that much in one stop at Target though and have never had it near the $700, but if I wanted to buy something that cost $700, I wouldn't even think about it and would just charge it to my Target card.

EDIT: I would pay it before the statement though. My Target card has never reported a balance. I only use it for the 5% off.

+1 - Except, I don't care when my RedCard shows a balance. It's only $500 (for over 5yrs ) and we had a new baby this year, and we end up spending at least $300/mo on formula and diapers and miscellaneous stuff every month - for the 5% off. I pay 1-2 times per months, and there's always the inevitable 1-day-before-statement-cuts purchase!

It's happened almost every month since we've had the baby. So, I usually show $50-$100 on the statement. I stopped stressing over it, because I know I pay it down to $0 every month. But, it's not worth it to me to use another card and miss out on $3 or $5 in discount just to have the statement report $0 when we have to make those purchases near the statement date.

Re: What is considered "maxxed out"?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:38:58 GMT

@RockinRay wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Jlu wrote:
^Although if you have $50k in available credit, what are you doing with a $1k limit?

Keeping a rebuilder card as a toy AU card for my DD to use as a tool for building her credit.

(By the time my new accounts finished appearing on my CRs, I should have ~40K in available credit, and I'm keeping my $750 Cap1 card.)

Tinu - I think this is an excellent idea...

Thanks. I think that it will turn out to be a win-win for both of us. I've instructed her to use it only for normal expenses such as gas and groceries and to reimburse me every week. This way, she'll learn how to handle a credit card and will have it show on her credit reports. She'll be getting almost two years of spotless history from it right off the bat. Since it's a rewards card, her usage should offset the AF, so it won't cost me anything to keep it open. And, I'll get an extra year or so of reporting, depending on when she's able to get her own card. All in all, I think it's a very good arrangement.

Re: What is considered "maxed out"?

Roarmeister — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 02:08:18 GMT

Although your question and the replies so far are all aligned on the same idea (% of card's credit line used) I would offer up a different perspective.

TO ME - maxed out is how capable am I of making payments to my debts. That is -- how much discretionary money do I have left after paying off the monthly debts and savings? For some people it might be only a couple hundred dollars and for others it is in the thousands. For me, it's about $1500 a month that I can throw at my non-mortgage debts. If I am paying all of that out, I consider myself MAXED OUT with nothing left for other purposes.

Since this amount is personal to each person's situation and budget, there is no preset percentage involved. And NO you do not want to cross your personal threshold as that would mean you are generating more debt than your ability to pay it off.