topic Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:35:34 GMT

I have recently been reading @Anonymous The Truth about Credit Card Utilization link and wanted to test it myself, to help the community a little bit. I posted there back on August 1, 2020. We decided to start my own thread on the subject and see what happens, as I pay down cards. Ok, so I will keep you posted of my progress.

I posted on August 1st, that I was currently at 68% aggregate UT on 13 CC accts. I have about $78K in credit used and can I pay it all off this month. I just recently last month started making $2-3K payments on several cards. I was at a 705 FICO 8 score a few weeks ago, then my Sams card didn't report my $10,000 limit for whatever reason, so my UT% went up, which pushed me over 69% and I lost 20 points, down to 685 on July 17th. Since then I have paid down several cards to be back at 68% currently. If Sams was reporting correctly, I would be at 62% today. Since I have paid several cards to the next individual UT level, my score is back at 698 with just paying down 3 cards. I just paid down two more cards today (Aug 1) from 88% to 67% individually, to see what happens next. These two report the first week of August. And as the month moves forward, I will pay down most to zero, or below 8%. I should have a good indication by the end of September.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:41:28 GMT

Update: The two cards I recently paid down from 88% UT to 67% UT, reported today on EX. I gained 2 points from 698 to 700, on EX FICO 8.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 19:21:50 GMT

Excellent, I look forward all your data points but also, to clarify, The Truth about Credit Card Utilization thread is actually by ABCD2199.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 02:34:04 GMT

Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid down to zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to 0%, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:

100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 14:28:54 GMT

One of my Chase cards posted on 8/7 from 77% UT to 1% UT. Also, my aggregate UT went down to 49.47, even with Sams Club not reporting a $10K credit limit. That being said, my EX FICO 8 went up 13 points, to 713. I don’t know if it is because of the aggregate UT, or both.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:17:52 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
Update: The two cards I recently paid down from 88% UT to 67% UT, reported today on EX. I gained 2 points from 698 to 700, on EX FICO 8.

@mowglidudeSorry I've been gone. Was this individual or aggregate percentages?

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:24:58 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid downto zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to $O, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:
100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years

@mowglidudeCiti CLD'ed you? Did you call and attempt to get it restored? What effect did the Chase card payoff have on aggregate util? ok you are clean/thick/aged/no new account scorecard, it appears, top card.

Can you check and see if you received points on the first of the month when your AoORA turned 8 years old?

And what's your aggregate installment utilization?

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:28:15 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
One of my Chase cards posted on 8/7 from 77% UT to 1% UT. Also, my aggregate UT went down to 49.47, even with Sams Club not reporting a $10K credit limit. That being said, my EX FICO 8 went up 13 points, to 713. I don’t know if it is because of the aggregate UT, or both.

@mowglidude77% to 1% crosses 3 individual thresholds. You didn't state before AG util, so it's hard to speculate. 49.47 will round to 50, so you didn't cross the 49% ag threshold.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 20:35:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Update: The two cards I recently paid down from 88% UT to 67% UT, reported today on EX. I gained 2 points from 698 to 700, on EX FICO 8.
@mowglidudeSorry I've been gone. Was this individual or aggregate percentages?

This was individual, two cards, the same percentages.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:33:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid downto zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to $O, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:
100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years
@mowglidudeCiti CLD'ed you? Did you call and attempt to get it restored? What effect did the Chase card payoff have on aggregate util? ok you are clean/thick/aged/no new account scorecard, it appears, top card.

Can you check and see if you received points on the first of the month when your AoORA turned 8 years old?

And what's your aggregate installment utilization?

Yes Citi CLD'd me last month, before all my high indivudual UT's started to go down. They said to call back when everything posts and they will do a soft pull. We'll see. This Chase card caused my aggregate UT to go from 63 - 60%. My AoORA opened on Aug 17, 2012, so I don't know if that scored yet, but I will check on the 17th. I am at 49.47% aggregate installment utilization today. I have three cards posting in the next week up to the 17th, $16,861 total in payments, so far. I may add more before they post, or save to bring down last two cards below 28.9% individual UT before the end of the month. Also on the 19th, Sams (AU) should post back that $10K limit also. So based on the $16K+ in payments and an additional $10K in CL, my aggregate UT should be 31.7% around the 20th, if all posts the same as last month. Getting close. BTW, those three cards are going from 57% -1%, 56% - 24% and 80% - 25% individual UT's.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:33:24 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid downto zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to $O, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:
100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years
@mowglidudeCiti CLD'ed you? Did you call and attempt to get it restored? What effect did the Chase card payoff have on aggregate util? ok you are clean/thick/aged/no new account scorecard, it appears, top card.

Can you check and see if you received points on the first of the month when your AoORA turned 8 years old?

And what's your aggregate installment utilization?
Yes Citi CLD'd me last month, before all my high indivudual UT's started to go down. They said to call back when everything posts and they will do a soft pull. We'll see. This Chase card caused my aggregate UT to go from 63 - 60%. My AoORA opened on Aug 17, 2012, so I don't know if that scored yet, but I will check on the 17th. I am at 49.47% aggregate installment utilization today. I have three cards posting in the next week up to the 17th, $16,861 total in payments, so far. I may add more before they post, or save to bring down last two cards below 28.9% individual UT before the end of the month. Also on the 19th, Sams (AU) should post back that $10K limit also. So based on the $16K+ and an additional $10K in CL, my aggregate UT should be 31.7% around the 20th, if all posts the same as last month. Getting close. BTW, those three cards are going from 57% -1%, 56% - 24% and 80% - 25% individual UT's.

@mowglidude if you get any awards for AoORA, it would've been on August 1, if there's a threshold at 8 years. I don't know if there is or not that's why I'm checking.

Do you know for sure the AU is counting on score 8? Have you tested it?

I am surprised you didn't see a few points for crossing the two thresholds with the Chase. What is your highest utilization card right now, what percentage?

Yeah I think you're going to see some nice score changes when all that posts.

What was your Ag utilization before you paid the two cards from 88% to 67%? Did you cross any aggregate thresholds or was it only the one 69% individual threshold that was crossed by both?

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:44:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid downto zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to $O, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:
100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years
@mowglidudeCiti CLD'ed you? Did you call and attempt to get it restored? What effect did the Chase card payoff have on aggregate util? ok you are clean/thick/aged/no new account scorecard, it appears, top card.

Can you check and see if you received points on the first of the month when your AoORA turned 8 years old?

And what's your aggregate installment utilization?
Yes Citi CLD'd me last month, before all my high indivudual UT's started to go down. They said to call back when everything posts and they will do a soft pull. We'll see. This Chase card caused my aggregate UT to go from 63 - 60%. My AoORA opened on Aug 17, 2012, so I don't know if that scored yet, but I will check on the 17th. I am at 49.47% aggregate installment utilization today. I have three cards posting in the next week up to the 17th, $16,861 total in payments, so far. I may add more before they post, or save to bring down last two cards below 28.9% individual UT before the end of the month. Also on the 19th, Sams (AU) should post back that $10K limit also. So based on the $16K+ and an additional $10K in CL, my aggregate UT should be 31.7% around the 20th, if all posts the same as last month. Getting close. BTW, those three cards are going from 57% -1%, 56% - 24% and 80% - 25% individual UT's.
@mowglidude if you get any awards for AoORA, it would've been on August 1, if there's a threshold at 8 years. I don't know if there is or not that's why I'm checking.

Do you know for sure the AU is counting on score 8? Have you tested it?

I am surprised you didn't see a few points for crossing the two thresholds with the Chase. What is your highest utilization card right now, what percentage?

Yeah I think you're going to see some nice score changes when all that posts.

What was your Ag utilization before you paid the two cards from 88% to 67%? Did you cross any aggregate thresholds or was it only the one 69% individual threshold that was crossed by both?

I do not know for sure the Sams AU is counting on score 8? How you test it?

Highest UT card right now still posted is 80%. I have others currently posted at 57%, 65%, 56%, 67%, 67% and 59% that will all be adjusted later this month.

After I paid the two cards from 88% to 67%, I went from 68 - 64% aggregate UT, so no threshold crossed at that time.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Girlzilla88 — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:49:55 GMT

@mowglidude Ohhhh Interesting I'm dabbling in UTL/DP right now myself XD

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:54:08 GMT

@Girlzilla88 wrote:
@mowglidude Ohhhh Interesting I'm dabbling in UTL/DP right now myself XD

It's really interesting to see how different thresholds really give your score a nice bump and some don't. I'm learning as I go...

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 20:44:29 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Since my last post on 8/3, Citicard posted that I paid downto zero, but showed a $22 balance. CL was also decreased from $3500 to $880. I also paid down a Chase card from 69% UT to $O, which posted today. No change in score, still at 700 EX FICO 8. Current aggregate utilization is now 60%. I have already made several large payments this month. We will see what happens when they post. Stay tuned. FYI, nothing below changed to my other EX credit report details before or after:
100% ontime payments for revolving and installments, not lates, no derogs
No collections, settlements, negatives, baddies
5 hard inquiries (1 less than 1 year)
$31,556 in installments (1 pers loan, 1 Auto)
AoOA: 8 years
AoORA: 8 years
AAoA: 4.1 years
AoYRA: 1.5 years
@mowglidudeCiti CLD'ed you? Did you call and attempt to get it restored? What effect did the Chase card payoff have on aggregate util? ok you are clean/thick/aged/no new account scorecard, it appears, top card.

Can you check and see if you received points on the first of the month when your AoORA turned 8 years old?

And what's your aggregate installment utilization?
Yes Citi CLD'd me last month, before all my high indivudual UT's started to go down. They said to call back when everything posts and they will do a soft pull. We'll see. This Chase card caused my aggregate UT to go from 63 - 60%. My AoORA opened on Aug 17, 2012, so I don't know if that scored yet, but I will check on the 17th. I am at 49.47% aggregate installment utilization today. I have three cards posting in the next week up to the 17th, $16,861 total in payments, so far. I may add more before they post, or save to bring down last two cards below 28.9% individual UT before the end of the month. Also on the 19th, Sams (AU) should post back that $10K limit also. So based on the $16K+ and an additional $10K in CL, my aggregate UT should be 31.7% around the 20th, if all posts the same as last month. Getting close. BTW, those three cards are going from 57% -1%, 56% - 24% and 80% - 25% individual UT's.
@mowglidude if you get any awards for AoORA, it would've been on August 1, if there's a threshold at 8 years. I don't know if there is or not that's why I'm checking.

Do you know for sure the AU is counting on score 8? Have you tested it?

I am surprised you didn't see a few points for crossing the two thresholds with the Chase. What is your highest utilization card right now, what percentage?

Yeah I think you're going to see some nice score changes when all that posts.

What was your Ag utilization before you paid the two cards from 88% to 67%? Did you cross any aggregate thresholds or was it only the one 69% individual threshold that was crossed by both?
I do not know for sure the Sams AU is counting on score 8? How you test it?

Highest UT card right now still posted is 80%. I have others currently posted at 57%, 65%, 56%, 67%, 67% and 59% that will all be adjusted later this month.

After I paid the two cards from 88% to 67%, I went from 68 - 64% aggregate UT, so no threshold crossed at that time.

@mowglidude The AU test is described in the Scoring Primer linked at the top of my signature. Basically all AUs report zero and you see if you get a penalty on version 8.

You may not have seen a score change since you still have a higher individual utilization card.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:14:34 GMT

Today two cards posted, one from 57% - 0% UT and one from 56% - 0% UT. My aggregate UT went down from 49.47% - 39.03%, causing my score to go up 15 points, from 713 - 728 EX FICO 8. I have six more cards adjusting in the next three weeks during this test.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

SouthJamaica — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:38:02 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
Today two cards posted, one from 57% - 0% UT and one from 56% - 0% UT. My aggregate UT went down from 49.47% - 39.03%, causing my score to go up 15 points, from 713 - 728 EX FICO 8. I have six more cards adjusting in the next three weeks during this test.

This is certainly consistent with 39% as a threshold for aggregate revolving utilization, but there are other factors which possibly contributed to your point gain:

-individual thresholds

-# of cards over 30%

-# of cards with balance

Congratulations! And thanks for the data points.

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

mowglidude — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:49:44 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@mowglidude wrote:
Today two cards posted, one from 57% - 0% UT and one from 56% - 0% UT. My aggregate UT went down from 49.47% - 39.03%, causing my score to go up 15 points, from 713 - 728 EX FICO 8. I have six more cards adjusting in the next three weeks during this test.
This is certainly consistent with 39% as a threshold for aggregate revolving utilization, but there are other factors which possibly contributed to your point gain:

-individual thresholds
-# of cards over 30%
-# of cards with balance

Congratulations! And thanks for the data points.

I still have five accounts over 60% individual UT to update and adjust, in the next few weeks..Do you think the score increase was from going below 49% aggregate UT, or being just above 39% aggregate UT?

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 15:14:46 GMT

@mowglidude wrote:
Today two cards posted, one from 57% - 0% UT and one from 56% - 0% UT. My aggregate UT went down from 49.47% - 39.03%, causing my score to go up 15 points, from 713 - 728 EX FICO 8. I have six more cards adjusting in the next three weeks during this test.

@mowglidude Congratulations! That is terrific 2 cards passed one individual threshold and you crossed one aggregate! Sounds about right, terrific keep us updated!

Re: Testing Credit Card Utilization Thresholds

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 15:26:54 GMT

@mowglidude No you crossed the 49% aggregate utilisation threshold. You were above it because you were at 49 point something percent.

Edit: There is no 39% threshold. I don't know if that was a typo? But that's true, how many revolvers with a balance did you have and how many do you have presently?