Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

[taxi818]

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@joebryantnyc wrote:

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. 

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Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS.  It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer   Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at. 

[elim]

Both store card limits and store card balances are factored into utilization.

[takeshi74]

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@joebryantnyc wrote:

Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

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Picking nits but it's not a matter of the type of card but its utilization.  I.e. the question should be "Are store cards factored into revolving utilization?"".

[vayub4]

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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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+1 I was denied for this reason

[Anonymous]

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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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Why would maxing a store card be hard? lol

[Anonymous]

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@taxi818 wrote:

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@joebryantnyc wrote:

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. 

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Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS.  It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer   Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at. 

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+1000% correct!

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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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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Why would maxing a store card be hard? lol

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This would be incredibly easy for me to do. I have $65k of credit overall, and I have an American Eagle card that has been stuck at $175 for four years. Two shirts and two pairs of pants would probably be enough to send me to 90%+ utilization, killing my score if I let it report.

[kdm31091]

Maxing out a store card could be pretty easy given that most give low limits. I agree with taxi though. We have our cards so that we can use them. If you use a card and it reports a high balance, yes, your score will temporarily ding, but as soon as you pay it and it reports again, you'll be fine. It's not worth worrying about unless you have an app planned this month/cycle because utilization has no memory, nor does it impact anything long-term.

[Anonymous]

I would certainly hope so. Especially the folks that got a Bon-Ton/Carson's/Bergner's/ElderB/Younkers card and were able to get CLIs to 10-15-20-30 grand from the phone line loophole.

[CreditDunce]

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@taxi818 wrote:

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@joebryantnyc wrote:

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. 

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Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS.  It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer   Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at. 

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I agree totally with this.  The one exception is the old FICO NextGen score.  NextGen broke up store card utilization and bank/card utilization as separate categories.  Similar to modern FICO breaking up Installment and Revolving as separate categories.  The confusion comes from all of the old information FICO posted about the NextGen score.   NextGen is a FICO score, but it is an odd ball score.