topic Re: Question on untilization in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Question on untilization

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:25:17 GMT

My daughter's first birthday party falls the day before my statement closes for the month. I was thinking of using my rewards card to pay for some things, but it would bring my utilization on that card to about 75%, and I wouldn't pay it until a few days after the party and statement closing. Would that affect my credit long term or would it only affect me for the month and then return back to normal once i get that utilization back down again the following month?

Re: Question on untilization

SouthJamaica — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 16:34:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My daughter's first birthday party falls the day before my statement closes for the month. I was thinking of using my rewards card to pay for some things, but it would bring my utilization on that card to about 75%, and I wouldn't pay it until a few days after the party and statement closing. Would that affect my credit long term or would it only affect me for the month and then return back to normal once i get that utilization back down again the following month?

It would affect you only short term, unless the lender, or some other creditor, decided to take adverse action against you for having an almost maxed out card. Personally, I wouldn't do it.

Re: Question on untilization

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:07:29 GMT

I would just go ahead an make an extra payment on your card, something in the ballpark of whatever you were planning on spending with those last-minute expenses.

Re: Question on untilization

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 13:00:54 GMT

We can advise you best if you tell us your three FICO 8 scores, your current total utilization, and your total utilization after the card goes to 75%.

A very safe compromise might be to make an extra payment so that the final balance (including interest) is under 68%.

Re: Question on untilization

SouthJamaica — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 15:25:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
We can advise you best if you tell us your three FICO 8 scores, your current total utilization, and your total utilization after the card goes to 75%.

A very safe compromise might be to make an extra payment so that the final balance (including interest) is under 68%.

Me I don't see any point in damaging one's FICO scores for a birthday party.

Re: Question on untilization

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:54:34 GMT

Utilization "damage" only lasts 30 days so long as you are able to pay it back to where you were at (or better). It's the OPs daughter's first birthday, which can be a big deal. It's up to him to decide if a 30 day score hit is "worth" his daughter's first birthday party. And, again, if an extra payment is made as suggested by both myself and CGID, the OP may be able to have his daughter's birthday cake and eat it too and avoid any adverse impact to his FICO scores at all.

Re: Question on untilization

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 06:49:05 GMT

Is that 75% purely from party expenses or is that in addition to normal card spending? If it's from total monthly spending then just make a payment to zero out the card a few days before buying the party supplies.

If it's a large party with a catering hall, food, cake, entertainment etc; then you should either split the charges on to multiple cards, try getting a CLI or pay cash for some of the bills.

Or plan a smaller party.

Re: Question on untilization

sarge12 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 07:07:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My daughter's first birthday party falls the day before my statement closes for the month. I was thinking of using my rewards card to pay for some things, but it would bring my utilization on that card to about 75%, and I wouldn't pay it until a few days after the party and statement closing. Would that affect my credit long term or would it only affect me for the month and then return back to normal once i get that utilization back down again the following month?

I don't understand the answers you are getting here at all. Every credit card I have it takes at least a few days for any charges to actually post to the account and will show as pending until then. Charges placed the day before the statement cuts would not make it onto the statement that cuts the next day. It would not need to be paid until the next statement. If like most cards the statement balance is what reports, that parties charges would not be included in the utilization. You should be able to even pay it weeks later without affecting utilization.

Re: Question on untilization

sarge12 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 07:32:47 GMT

@sarge12 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
My daughter's first birthday party falls the day before my statement closes for the month. I was thinking of using my rewards card to pay for some things, but it would bring my utilization on that card to about 75%, and I wouldn't pay it until a few days after the party and statement closing. Would that affect my credit long term or would it only affect me for the month and then return back to normal once i get that utilization back down again the following month?
I don't understand the answers you are getting here at all. Every credit card I have it takes at least a few days for any charges to actually post to the account and will show as pending until then. Charges placed the day before the statement cuts would not make it onto the statement that cuts the next day. It would not need to be paid until the next statement. If like most cards the statement balance is what reports, that parties charges would not be included in the utilization. You should be able to even pay it weeks later without affecting utilization.

Perhaps why I am so certain of this is because I often want to pay new charges the same day I make the charges...and can't...I have to always wait at least 2 days until the credit card issuer finally gets around to actually posting it to the account. While it shows up online as pending I simply can not pay it. This has me confused, because either I am misunderstanding your post or everyone else is. EDIT::: Are you saying the charges on the card are going to be placed the day of the party...or earlier? If the charges on the card are placed the day of the party you should be fine, if placed earlier what others are posting would apply!