How bad does a maxed cc hurt?

[jschaffer]

I have a few cc's with small TL's ($300 each card) and there for a while I was using them all up every month, and then I'd PIF when the bill came in. But then I read something that even if you PIF, if the cc reports to the CRA's as maxed out, it can hurt your score by 100 points.

OUCH! I think that I have been hit by that once or twice. How long does it take to recover from that as long as I keep those card's at 9% utilization from now on?

[MidnightVoice]

One the CCCs report the low balances the scores will increase.  Your score is a snapdhot of your credit that day.

So a couple of months at keeping them all at <10% and your score should be where it should be

[Anonymous]

I once had a barium enema. [It was for medical reasons rather than for fun.] The prep sucked, but the procedure itself was nightmarishly painful. One of the few legally sanctioned forms of torture outside of Gitmo. But, then it ended and next day there were no lasting effects--other than to one's pride.

Think of a maxed CC as a barium enema.

[MidnightVoice]

---

Noah_Bodie wrote:

I once had a barium enema..

---

This is not a mental picture upon which I wish to dwell.

[jschaffer]

ROFL, not quite a mental image I was expecting. But thanks for the lesson though.

[Anonymous]

LOL

[Anonymous]

---

MidnightVoice wrote:

---

Noah_Bodie wrote:

I once had a barium enema..

---

This is not a mental picture upon which I wish to dwell.

---

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a - how shall I say- vivid picture to keep my mind on track about never maxing out cards?

Have you every heard of Tony Robbins? He advocates using pictures such as these for good things and bad things- for example to motivate yourself choose a pic that creates a mental image that motivates you-

and then he says the same thing to use as a distractor- for example if  your weakness is eating pizza imagine eating a 100 pizzas and barfing...

ugh! now I am grossing everyone out!!!

[Anonymous]

Simple a maxed out card can hurt your scores as much as a collection.

[jschaffer]

Thanks for all the tips folks. Good to know. Sounds like on my next bill I'm going to PIF these stupid low CL cards and sock drawer them to recover my scores.

[Anonymous]

I'm still getting confused with all this. I thought the FICO takes the total util. of all CC acounts. So, if you have a total TL of 10,000 and say the CL on 1 card is 400 and bal is 380 but that's your only balance of the entire 10,000. Are you still hurting yourself?