topic Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase in Understanding FICO® Scoring

94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

ScottL — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:14:03 GMT

I have 7 credit cards and was an authorized user on an 8th card.

my current Fico report shows my utilization is 94% and my scores range around 615

The 8th card is nearly maxed. So I removed myself as an authorized user. I'm assuming that should help as I have no control on paying that down.

the other 7 cards all varied but were all around 90% as well.

yesterday I paid them all down to be 29% or less. One I accidentally paid off completely.

before all this I had around $12k in debt and was newly maxed.

wont know until everyone reports and give updates. But just kinda curious. What kind of increase are you guys thinking I might get?

I don't have any collections, recent late payments etc. I do have a couple old charge offs but they are 3-4 years old now. Not sure how badly they are affecting me. I have a gut feeling the utilization is what was hurting me the most.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Thomas_Thumb — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:47:40 GMT

The charge offs are likely costing you 50-60 points. The prior ultra high aggregate and all cards near max up to 110 points.

The paydown may net you up to 70-75 points. So, if your pre paydown score was 615, new score might come in around 680-690.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

FicoMike0 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:54:51 GMT

Please update us when you get the new scores. Good data point.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

ScottL — Thu, 01 May 2025 15:19:57 GMT

Yes sir. Will do. I'm anxious to see myself.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

LivingTheAmericanDream — Mon, 12 May 2025 22:45:57 GMT

Very nice! I'm thinking 150-180. Good luck

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

i_need_credit — Tue, 13 May 2025 16:28:15 GMT

@ScottL wrote:
I have 7 credit cards and was an authorized user on an 8th card.

my current Fico report shows my utilization is 94% and my scores range around 615

The 8th card is nearly maxed. So I removed myself as an authorized user. I'm assuming that should help as I have no control on paying that down.

the other 7 cards all varied but were all around 90% as well.

yesterday I paid them all down to be 29% or less. One I accidentally paid off completely.

before all this I had around $12k in debt and was newly maxed.

wont know until everyone reports and give updates. But just kinda curious. What kind of increase are you guys thinking I might get?

I don't have any collections, recent late payments etc. I do have a couple old charge offs but they are 3-4 years old now. Not sure how badly they are affecting me. I have a gut feeling the utilization is what was hurting me the most.

Im thinking at LEAST 90 points. I did something similar (didnt have that much debt) and removed myself as AU from two maxed out cards and my scores went up around 80-90 points

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

xenon3030 — Tue, 13 May 2025 20:15:22 GMT

The best guess is landing nearby 690-700.

By further optimization of your profile (dropping inq, AZEO, aging accounts, adding loan), you may reach ~740-750 or higher in a few months.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Debt-is-a-Scam — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:18:27 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
The charge offs are likely costing you 50-60 points. The prior ultra high aggregate and all cards near max up to 110 points.

The paydown may net you up to 70-75 points. So, if your pre paydown score was 615, new score might come in around 680-690.

I agree.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

KatzNDawgs — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 03:07:01 GMT

Also depends on other metrics with your file such as age, thickness, credit mix, etc. But I would say maybe around 90 points average for F8 scores.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Thomas_Thumb — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 05:08:02 GMT

@ScottL

Can you share an update on score improvements?

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

FICOdawg — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 12:22:54 GMT

I'm interested to see as well. Be nice to see all three scores as to which one is more sensitive to aggregate and/or individual utilization.

Personally I'm a big fan of debt snowball as it's nice to see balances at zero and less cards to maintain a payment.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 13:55:11 GMT

I'm going to go with +100 points. What's the prize for the person that is the closest?

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

FicoMike0 — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:27:13 GMT

@Varsity_Lu

Like a lot of things, there's no prize, you just win.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

ScottL — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:30:34 GMT

I don't think they've all updated yet. But my best increase so far has been Trams Union and it's at 660

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Vinjints — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:35:59 GMT

Progress! Now I guess the next step is to get under 50% reporting?

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

Thomas_Thumb — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:53:02 GMT

Let's get a final score for stage 1 utilization reduction, after completion of updates, first.

Hopefully the OP can reach his 680 goal. If not, reducing AG UT to under 9% with 50% or less cards reporting balances should be more than sufficient.

Reminder note: Scoring algorithms associated with dirty scorecards have a somewhat muted response to changes in utilization relative to clean scorecards.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

FICOdawg — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:16:02 GMT

That's what I would do with everything 29% or under is just start paying them off one by one.

Re: 94% Utilization to 29%. Guess the increase

masscredit — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:43:02 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

Reminder note: Scoring algorithms associated with dirty scorecards have a somewhat muted response to changes in utilization relative to clean scorecards.

I've noticed that with mine. There have been times when I've make a lot of purchases and let the balance report. Sometimes on at least half of my cards at a time. My scores moved but not as much as I thought they would.