topic Re: Utilization question in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Utilization question

MrCredit — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:47:36 GMT

Is your FICO score concentrating more on your utilization on accts. I went from 2 citi cards to one and moved 10264 to the other card, combined they now have a 28100 limit. 48% util. The other citi card is closed. Before this transition the other card was at 90% and the 2nd citi card was at 21%...was this a good move?... should I concentrate on paying off the cards with higher utilizations? My highest is $7280 on a 12k limit BOA 60% Thanks

Trying to get in the 700s. In the mid 650's now. Have lots of inq this year on EX.

Re: Utilization question

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:04:30 GMT

I'm just a little confused. Is this the same Citi card you mentioned in this thread?

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&message.id=128623

The credit line on this Citi card was raised from $28,100 to $31,400.

The response to your utilization question depends upon this card's credit limit.

Message Edited by psychic on 11-16-2008 01:04 PM

Re: Utilization question

MrCredit — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:09:09 GMT

Yes I am using this as an example counting the CL before I received the CLI. I want to see if I made the right move here.

Re: Utilization question

MrCredit — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:10:20 GMT

It was raised though, I want to see if I made the right decision and what to expect with fico scoring... the CL is 31.4k but I wanted to know prior to this if I made the correct decision.

Re: Utilization question

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:40:20 GMT

Dude, you're over $21,000 in credit card debt. That's insane.

You shouldn't be worried about your credit scores at this point, you need to focus on paying off that debt.

This is what I can deduce from your word problem:

Card1 Card2 Resulting Card

Credit Line 11404 9923 28100

Balance 10264 2084 13488

% Utilization 90% 21% 48%

It appears that your new combined card has a higher credit limit than Card1 + Card2 to the tune of about $6700.

This increase in "available credit" will help your score, because your effective utilization (the sum of all balances / the sum of all credit lines) is lower. Your old utilization was 57.8%. Your new utilization is 48%. Therefore you should see a small increase in your score. But 48% is still way too high. You need to get that down to below 10%.

And don't you ever post a word problem like that again. Are you trying to torture us?

Peace

Message Edited by leggo on 11-16-2008 11:40 PM

Re: Utilization question

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:01:00 GMT

leggo, you're KILLING me! Excellent reply.

Message Edited by writemikep on 11-17-2008 10:01 AM

Re: Utilization question

marty56 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:34:43 GMT

You could get close to 700 if you lower util to 9% or better and dont apply for any more credit.

Re: Utilization question

Madison — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:54:04 GMT

You did the right thing.