Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

[joebryantnyc]

I keep searching on the message boards regarding store cards helping my over all credit Utilation. I havent found a straight forward answer so here I am asking everyone. 

I have store cards with Macys, Bloomingdales, Amazon, Paypal Connect and Walmart but I'm curious if those credit limits are factored in by creditors when reviewing my overall utiliazation along with my non-store general credit cards. 

[DeeBee78]

It depends on the FICO scoring model. Some models split Bankcard and Retail into separate groups, and calculate your utilization sepately. 

[joebryantnyc]

Understood! Thank you for clairifying DeeBee78!

[Thomas_Thumb]

My Best Buy store card is included in the overall credit limit calculation and therefore the utilization calculation as well.

My understand is all the current Fico scoring models include store card CLs in the total CL number. Get a copy of your credit report to check this. The scoring models pull data directly from the CRA reports. You can get EQ and TU credit report summaries free through CK. The summaries are good even if though the scoring model they apply to the data is VantageScore. 

[CreditCuriosity]

They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

[Anonymous]

In checking my balances as a percentage of my total credit lines, including store cards, I find that they are included.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

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Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.

[CreditCuriosity]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

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Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.

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Just an extreme example

[Anonymous]

I know Penfed nextgen factors store card.
I got hit with no store card, so I got one and sd it. The next one from nextgen said, not enough usage. Talk about reaching.

[Kirmie2010]

My Fico and all (credit.com  wisepiggy, lending club, credit sesame, credit karma and so on) also factor in my store cards in overall util.

(so every scoring system ive used/seen for my own account does factor in store cards)