topic Re: CC util in Understanding FICO® Scoring

CC util

907grown — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:31:36 GMT

Just wondering, with paying off my cc's today, I have taken my utilization from 120% to about 5%, my cards were small, 250, 350, 300, and a 500 line of credit. All PAID IN FULL! Will the fact that they are small cards impact my score going up less then if they had larger aailable credit limits?

Re: CC util

marty56 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:53:46 GMT

Size(CL) doesnt matter. Its all about %util and # of cards reporting a balance. You should see a nice score increase on payind down the util. Also have little to no CC debt is always great.

Re: CC util

manyquestions — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:18:30 GMT

Going from 120% to 5% utilization you should get a huge jump. I think I got like 40-50 points jump when I did something like that. The percent is what matters, not the amount. That's one reason people say to ask higher credit limits. With a given amount of debt, if your limits are higher your FICO score will be higher. Say you had total credit limits of $1000. If you have a total balance reporting of $900 your score would be hurt by your 90% utilization. On the other hand, if you have $10,000 total credit limits with the same $900 balance your utilization would be 9% and FICO would think you were great. You can be "very bad" or "great" with the same amount of debt because it goes by percentage not amount.

Re: CC util

907grown — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:08:51 GMT

40-50 points, thats all? I was hoping for more then that. My fico simulator showed 60-90 point increase. My FICO is low, a 100 point increase would be wonderful, but even that would not put me at the magic number of 620. Trying to figure out the fastest way to get there once my CC's report as paid. I have gone through, disputed wrong info, had those accts removed or updated, and unfortunately, everything else on there is accurate.

Re: CC util

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:51:19 GMT

Just keep going after it all. It all adds up. And different members have different results. It all depends on your own unique set of factors in your credit reports.

Re: CC util

RobertEG — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:41:16 GMT

The FICO simulator does not allow you to see the effect of one change over a month. It shows the combined affect of all factors, including aging of accounts, the specified number of months into the future.