topic Re: manipulating minutia... in Understanding FICO® Scoring

manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:19:11 GMT

I have learned SO much from these forums...mostly on the credit card threads, but lots here as well.

I'm just starting what looks to be a 30 dayish "science" experiment...because I CAN, and I WANT to....

While I have always known that "high utilization" is a bad thing, I've only recently discovered just how many slices that gets cut into and how it applies...

...for instance...

DW's util is somewhere around 38%....not terrible, but not great, I know.

What I didn't know (until recently) is that because some of her accounts are at 0 balance, and some are "maxed out" her score suffers for THAT as well...

she has 12 accounts solely in her name, and we have 7 that are joint...in other words, she has 19 credit card accounts reporting on her credit report.

Four of them have a zero balance. Eight of them are "maxed out" (over 80% util.)

(The rest are somewhere in between, and three of THOSE have zero percent interest...)

Over the next 30 days, I'll be changing where I send dollars to make sure that NONE of her cards are reporting over 80% on 21 July. (One of the statements just cut today...oops.)

Assuming that her total utilization stays roughly the same, it may drop slightly...how many points do you think she can gain by having NO accounts over 80%?

I am interested in others opinions, and will report the results as soon as I have them.

Re: manipulating minutia...

llecs — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:57:23 GMT

If the goal is to get 80%+ utilized CCs below 80%, what will her overall util be after the changes? Are any of them over 100%?

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:49:36 GMT

roughly 32%, and no...none of them are currently over 100%

Re: manipulating minutia...

llecs — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:25:09 GMT

If she's going from 38% to 32%, I can't foresee too much of a gain. Maybe a few tops.

Re: manipulating minutia...

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 18:28:45 GMT

As per llecs' comment above, actual score gain will probably be minimal...

As a side note, I'd definitely be more focused on dropping the collective balances; managing 18+ accounts sounds like more trouble than it's worth, esp. if there are any AFs and what not. But, 38% util overall is not too awful, sounds like you've got it covered.

Re: manipulating minutia...

RobertEG — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 19:32:50 GMT

I think your plan of attacking the highest % util cards is right on point, at least from a FICO perspective.

Higher utils are scored proportionally higher, but aside from the "today" aspect, keeping cards at high utils is apt to cause some risk hearburn over at the CCCs.

They may result in an eventual credit limit decrease, making it much harder to keep overall and indiviv card % utils down.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:16:04 GMT

Thank you all for your input, I do appreciate it, but now I'm confused...

I could be mistaken here, so please feel free to set me straight...I thought that having ONE credit card report over 80% hurts your credit score, and that having MORE than ONE report over 80% hurt your score worse...

Thus, I believed that making certain that NO cards report over 80% would remove two "dings" and improve her score.

Am I mistaken in there somewhere?

As for juggling accounts, I'm really pretty good at it, and it doesn't stress me out...

DW says THAT is scary....lol....

Re: manipulating minutia...

llecs — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:49:09 GMT

IMO and IME, 80% isn't a magic number. It's no better off at 81% vs. 79%. FICO does look at individual util, but overall seems to pull a lot mor eprovided an individual card isn't over 100%.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:20:59 GMT

Thank you again. I've already got the ball rolling so to speak, so methinks that I'll continue with it and see what happens.

It can't hurt.

Re: manipulating minutia...

llecs — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:11:04 GMT

@tcbofade wrote:
It can't hurt.

Exactly. And I should have stressed that more.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:30:13 GMT

Well, I was half right...now that all of her accounts are under 80% util, her scores HAVE increased...26 points on EX, 32 points on EQ and TU.

However, much more noticably, as her util dropped, the CLI's started rolling in...she's had SEVEN unrequested CLI's since 01 July...

Food for thought boys and girls....

Re: manipulating minutia...

Quips — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:14:28 GMT

@tcbofade wrote:
Well, I was half right...now that all of her accounts are under 80% util, her scores HAVE increased...26 points on EX, 32 points on EQ and TU.

However, much more noticably, as her util dropped, the CLI's started rolling in...she's had SEVEN unrequested CLI's since 01 July...

Food for thought boys and girls....

That's great - congrats. Next thing to help increase the score would be to make sure that less than 50% of her open accounts report a balance.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:15:17 GMT

Thats a good point...I hadn't thought of that. Thank you!

Re: manipulating minutia...

jamie123 — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:02:39 GMT

UTI has a huge impact on scores!

Here is a stategy you might want to consider as your next move:

Paying off the lower balance cards in full. One of the "rules" with FICO is "The number of cards reporting balances." Once you get more that 50% of the cards reporting zero balances you will see a spike in her scores.

You said 19 cards, right? If you can get 10 to report zero you will see that spike.

Good luck!

Re: manipulating minutia...

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:21:59 GMT

IMO,

Ignore the score.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:00:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
IMO,

Ignore the score.

Why do you say that? The whole point (or most of the point, anyway) was to see if this would affect her scores...

Re: manipulating minutia...

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:21:11 GMT

@tcbofade wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
IMO,

Ignore the score.
Why do you say that? The whole point (or most of the point, anyway) was to see if this would affect her scores...

Because the score is just a snapshot of how we manage finances. In the bigger picture, she'll gain more points with lower debt.

I get dinged for utility, too many cards with balance, and other stuff when forgetting and letting a balance post but worry more about the debt trend itself. My score is fine but even if it were 851, the problem is still too much debt. I can barely keep 7 cards straight, 19 would be a job, LOL!

It pretty much seems that FICO loves utilization around 9%, on one card. If that's not an option, they like it when every card isn't reporting a balance. I don't track the changes closely enough to see how 4 cards versus 7 reporting affects the score, though. I don't really believe it matters until you're positioned for a major purchase.

Re: manipulating minutia...

jamie123 — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:43:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@tcbofade wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
IMO,

Ignore the score.
Why do you say that? The whole point (or most of the point, anyway) was to see if this would affect her scores...
Because the score is just a snapshot of how we manage finances. In the bigger picture, she'll gain more points with lower debt.

I get dinged for utility, too many cards with balance, and other stuff when forgetting and letting a balance post but worry more about the debt trend itself. My score is fine but even if it were 851, the problem is still too much debt. I can barely keep 7 cards straight, 19 would be a job, LOL!

It pretty much seems that FICO loves utilization around 9%, on one card. If that's not an option, they like it when every card isn't reporting a balance. I don't track the changes closely enough to see how 4 cards versus 7 reporting affects the score, though. I don't really believe it matters until you're positioned for a major purchase.

Shhhhhhhhh! Quiet down there!

That's what I was attempting to have him do without actually mentioning it.

+1 to drkaje's advice. You need to eventually get the balances below 9%, but you already know that I hope.

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 01:49:26 GMT

LOL! You're both correct, of course...but you're thinking a bit more down the road than I am.

At this point, as we ARE reducing our debt, I wanted to see if making sure that NO ONE account was over 80% would help her score...

...and it seems to have worked.

Of course, her overall utilization was reduced as well, but not very far...maybe from 36% to 32% or so...in a few months, she'll be under 30%.

We'll get there!

Re: manipulating minutia...

tcbofade — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 14:04:33 GMT

Hmph.

Had to redo my CC spreadsheet for a variety of reasons...there are still a few payments in process, but when they all post, HER util will be 34.0%

She was/is listed as an AU on several of my accounts...I called CC companies and removed her from two of them.

When everything updates, she'll have 17 reporting accounts, 3 of them are completely paid off, so I have to find six more...two of which are easy (low balance), but finding four more may take some time.

I'm hoping that I can get her total util under 30% in the very near future...