I know that Utilization% on revolving accounts should be low, the lower the better. My question is, does your FICO score improve as your utilization% slowly gets lower or only once it gets under a certain %. My Utilization % was 70%, does my FICO score get a little better at 65%, 60%, 55% and so on, or just once it gets really low? Just curious. I hope this isn't a dumb question. 
No not a dumb question at all. The only dumb question is one that is not asked. 
Yes your scores will continue to rise as you lower your utilizations on all your cards.
Going from 70% to 60% will not be a big score boost...But dropping utilization from 60% to 30% will. The ultimate goal should be 10% or less, imo.
Yes your scores will continue to rise as you lower your utilizations on all your cards.
Going from 70% to 60% will not be a big score boost...But dropping utilization from 60% to 30% will. The ultimate goal should be 10% or less, imo.
4kids4me wrote:I know that Utilization% on revolving accounts should be low, the lower the better. My question is, does your FICO score improve as your utilization% slowly gets lower or only once it gets under a certain %. My Utilization % was 70%, does my FICO score get a little better at 65%, 60%, 55% and so on, or just once it gets really low? Just curious. I hope this isn't a dumb question.
Generally, your score does not improve with each incremental decrease in utilization, but it jumps when you cross certain utilization thresholds.
Where those thresholds lie depends on which scoring bucket you are in, and unfortunately the only way to know is through some experimentation / trial and error.
Having said that, 50% is considered a major utilization threshold, as is 10%.
I agree cheddar some people have high scores and increases when over 10 percent you just never know--10 percent to me is just a godo rule of thumb--I was at around 23 percent in Dec and FICO said on my scores low utilization and I know it needs to be down 13 more precent but I am sure the outlook will be much greater when I get to 10 plus if you train yourself with 10 percent UTI its seems easier to manage & comfortable however anything under 10 I guess can never be such a bd thing--however I guess it just depends for us all--just gotta test the waters and see
however anything under 10 I guess can never be such a bd thing--however I guess it just depends for us all--just gotta test the waters and see Yes, Legz, I agree. I mentioned the 10% rule of thumb in my first post.
AWLEGZ wrote:I agree cheddar some people have high scores and increases when over 10 percent you just never know--10 percent to me is just a godo rule of thumb--I was at around 23 percent in Dec and FICO said on my scores low utilization and I know it needs to be down 13 more precent but I am sure the outlook will be much greater when I get to 10 plus if you train yourself with 10 percent UTI its seems easier to manage & comfortable
50% is another reliable utilization threshold, as I mentioned before.
Any others depend on your bucket.
4kids4me wrote:I know that Utilization% on revolving accounts should be low, the lower the better. My question is, does your FICO score improve as your utilization% slowly gets lower or only once it gets under a certain %. My Utilization % was 70%, does my FICO score get a little better at 65%, 60%, 55% and so on, or just once it gets really low? Just curious. I hope this isn't a dumb question.
My EQ fico is 744. At the time of that report I was at 20%. According to the FICO simulator, if I pay down to 10%, my score would increase to 754-794. If I pay to 0%, my score would increase to the same 754-794....
I'll be at 0% within the next month. I'll tell you what it actually increases to...