topic 70% utilization boost in General Credit Topics

70% utilization boost

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 02:17:21 GMT

I guess you could also call it the 70% utilization penalty. But I'm more a glass half full guy.

I had heard that anything reporting as over 70% shows the TL maxed out and penalizes more points for the balance. I set out to test this with my Barclays apple finance card. I have $2k limit with them and am sitting on top of a 0% financing offer for the ladies MBP. I paid the balance down to $1399.99 or exactly under 70% util for this statement.

As luck would have it I had a credit alert several days this week.

Monday I was at a 612 yesterday I was a 623 down from a 625 on Tuesday (my new amex acct hit and had a very high balance short statement month I guess). This afternoon I had an alert my score increased to a 632 as Barclays had reported the new balance. The reason given was "a high limit account has less of an impact on your score"

Pretty cool 8 point gain for the extra $3 I paid last month just to be below 70%. EQ is my lowest score I'm thrilled to see the jump this week. May be ahead of the pace for a VA loan this year.

Happy Crediting to all!

Re: 70% utilization boost

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 01:42:26 GMT

The figure cited for being maxed out is typically 70-90%, and I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone. It might depend on what bucket you're in.

Re: 70% utilization boost

RobertEG — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 15:24:21 GMT

Also, the potential impact of high util can, if maintained for a period of time, trigger a pssible review by the creditor of a credit limit decrease, thus reducing their potental risk.

Occasional bumps are expected, but prolonged high util might indicate that you are living on credit, and have thus become a higher risk consumer.

Re: 70% utilization boost

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 15:29:50 GMT

@RobertEG wrote:
Also, the potential impact of high util can, if maintained for a period of time, trigger a pssible review by the creditor of a credit limit decrease, thus reducing their potental risk.
Occasional bumps are expected, but prolonged high util might indicate that you are living on credit, and have thus become a higher risk consumer.

Very good Point. I dont even like to get close to 50%. I tend to try and keep balances lower then the 15% overall mark. Just incase i want to jump into a loan for a house i would not have to wait for my balances to report a lower balance to apply.

Re: 70% utilization boost

sarkell — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:23:17 GMT

Im trying to get to this point overall. Im at 85% right now. But dh just added a citi card with 7k limit so overall I will be there so should see a boost. After march I'll only have 4 cards with balanances of 12 all 90%. So next goal is to get those down below 70%