What's the highest utilization you've had & still been approved for a CC?

[Anonymous]

It's been on my mind for a while. I don't get any pre-qualifications except for Discover (bless them) and places like Credit One and Indigo. My FICO scores are in the mid 650s with EX now being 662. I am gardening right now and am not going to try to apply for anything because I feel my high utilization would nix any approvals. 

All my OPEN credit lines have low utilization. But I have some closed CCs (from my financial meltdown last year) that are on a low-interest payment plan. Those raise my util up. My income is low but so are my expenses. Even with the payment plan, my debt-to-income ratio is not bad (about 30%) (correction, under 20%). 

I'll repeat, I'm not itching to apply for anything right now, but I'm just curious—how often does someone with high util (but a reasonable Debt-to-Income ratio) get approved for a CC that's not secured or something like Credit One? I'm not necessarily hoping for a high limit, because my spending is low so I don't actually need a higher limit. 

 I'm really happy with Disco and can be content gardening for a while. I'm just thinking ahead.

(Edit: My util right now is about 75% and was about 85% or so when Disco approved me. Needless to say, each month my util goes down by a little bit as I continue to pay off the closed CCs.)

[AverageJoesCredit]

If it was an existing creditor, sometimes they will give a break , ie Navy or in my case Boa. At one time i had almost 80% util on my card and no problems, even going months on end in the 50's.

As your utilization drops, your scores should rise which in turn should help with approvals. Not alot of lenders approve with high util but some might suprise you

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It's been on my mind for a while. I don't get any pre-qualifications except for Discover (bless them) and places like Credit One and Indigo. My FICO scores are in the mid 650s with EX now being 662. I am gardening right now and am not going to try to apply for anything because I feel my high utilization would nix any approvals. 

All my OPEN credit lines have low utilization. But I have some closed CCs (from my financial meltdown last year) that are on a low-interest payment plan. Those raise my util up. My income is low but so are my expenses. Even with the payment plan, my debt-to-income ratio is not bad (about 30%). 

I'll repeat, I'm not itching to apply for anything right now, but I'm just curious—how often does someone with high util (but a reasonable Debt-to-Income ratio) get approved for a CC that's not secured or something like Credit One? I'm not necessarily hoping for a high limit, because my spending is low so I don't actually need a higher limit. 

 I'm really happy with Disco and can be content gardening for a while. I'm just thinking ahead.

(Edit: My util right now is about 75% and was about 85% or so when Disco approved me. Needless to say, each month my util goes down by a little bit as I continue to pay off the closed CCs.)

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Gardening is good as you have noticed. It gives you an opportunity to pay your debt down and not acquire any new CCs or inquiries. You already know the high UT is killing you. Definitely work toward getting that down to <28.9%. Also, you say you're in a low-interest payment plan. When will that be PIF? That's another factor to take into consideration before applying for anything else.

You're on the right path. 

GL2U

EDIT: Oops, I didn't answer your question. I think my highest was ~74% in 2016, but it was with NFCU and I was making large monthly payments. But one can't compare NFCU with other lenders because NFCU is a different kind of animal, and other lenders just won't give CLIs, and definitely not another CC, if UT is this high.

[coreysw12]

With a 95% util on my only credit card, I got approved for 3 new cards in the same week.

I think my experience was the exception though, not the norm.

[Anonymous]

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@coreysw12 wrote:

With a 95% util on my only credit card, I got approved for 3 new cards in the same week.

I think my experience was the exception though, not the norm.

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They smelled blood in the water and were hoping for some BT fees

[marcforza1]

I think I was around 51% when I was approved for the Cap1 QS card last year. And when I was at my highest at 65%, I got approved for the Shell Fuel Reward card with a $200 SL. 

[K-in-Boston]

6 figures in debt and overall utilization at around 85-90% in 2015.  NASA FCU - $15,000 approval 7.9%.

Changed my life to put it mildy, by allowing me to do the BT shuffle and pay down those balances instead of not doing much more than meeting minimums.  I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised at what credit unions will do for you, and with discipline, high utilization can be a memory.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

98%, 3 cards

[joltdude]

The highest utilization I had on a card was close to the 85% on a 0% offer with Discover... had almost no utilization on anyone else.. I got approved for a rather tasty CLI from Discover themselves... 

And now... I got a bit of a BT shuffle and utlization.. Not much at all

Thanks Miss Disco..

=)

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much, everyone for your insightful answers!  They're really helping!

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised at what credit unions will do for you, and with discipline, high utilization can be a memory.

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Thank you for sharing this! This is something I've been wondering about. Credit unions. I joined one about six months ago (Unify) and really like it for my banking.  (I love that my direct deposits arrive "early" compared to other banks!)

I foolishly applied for a Unify credit card about four months ago and was turned down. They said to "try in six months" and they were concerned about my high utilization. I've heard good things about Unify credit cards but I dread the whole "proof of income" thing because I'm self-employed and earnings come in little bits and pieces. It's not like I can throw a paystub or two at them and say, "Here's your proof of income." On the other hand, most of my earnings go through my checking account with them, so it's not like they shouldn't already know how much I make! 

I'm dithering about whether to apply for a card with Unify (until after my util is way down). 

So my question is, what other credit unions are out there that would consider a credit card when util is high-ish? I'm not going to try to apply for anything for at least several more months, but I'm curious.