What is considered maxed out on a credit card?

[cmy28]

I just want to know what is considered maxed out on a $4,500 limit.  I have $198 left right now.  My payments are $117.  I've been running behind on money due to work but now that it is picking up I am able to finally put this credit card aside.  I do have a co-signer and am worried that her credit score may have gone down due to the amount I have left.  I have been making my payments on time usually a week before the due date because right when I get paid I make the payment.  It's so low now because I end up having to spend that payment later on in the month on food and gas. 

So is having that amount left considered maxed out?  And if it is, will making larger payments like $200 instead of $117 increase the credit score faster?

[Mopar_Jones]

Yes, you can consider that maxed out. If your limit is $4,500.. in order to keep your score and the co-signers score in the positive, you're going to want to keep the balance on that less than 30% of the limit.. so at any given time, you don't want to have $1,350 on the card, or scores will start going down.

I understand where you are though.. and as long as either of you aren't applying for credit, you'll both be fine. Just make sure you keep making payments on time, and then pay down what you can when you can!

[myjourney]

Yes to max'ed out thus a scoring ding will result

[enharu]

Anything above 90% utilization is considered maxed out. So to avoid that you should have at least $450 in available credit for that card.

It does affect both yours and your consigner scores. Paying more than just minimum will help lower utilization faster, and thereby help increase the scores back up faster.

[cmy28]

Oh no, okay.  Well when I got my credit card my co signer already knew I was going to have to spend almost all of it because it was for a big purchase.  I've had it for two months so I haven't been able to pay a lot of it off right away.  Making those minimum payments but having to spend it later for other things.  It just stayed the same amount. 

[cmy28]

enharu ok I can make that $450 payment for the month of august so hopefully that will bump up the score quickly! Thank you!

[NewtoCredit80]

OP, Anything above 70% of the credit limit looks like a mxed out credit cards. Your scores would rise once your utilization is below 30% and for best scores your util should be between 1-9%.

[Adalen]

While the under 30% is a general rule of thumb, getting your balance below 90% is usually a significant enough difference to get you started.  Obviously OP is not in the position to pay it all down to 30% at this point in time, so 90% will be a nice step.

Don't just make the minimum payments.  They will likely be eaten up by interest anyway (if you don't currently have a 0% interest rate).

[Creditaddict]

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@NewtoCredit80 wrote:

OP, Anything above 70% of the credit limit looks like a mxed out credit cards. Your scores would rise once your utilization is below 30% and for best scores your util should be between 1-9%.

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I was leaning more towards the 70-75% that Fico actually considers an account maxed and yes while others have posted 30,9, etc.... you will see score increases along the way as you pass each percentage that is considered... need to find that graph around here somewhere... If you can do $450 next month, then that's a great start... keep throwing what you can and it will start to help your score each month little by little... the account will also age more and depending on credit profile, maybe you could add another card... many things to get your score to continue to rise as you work on this 1 debt... hopefully it's the only maxed out card you have.

[cmy28]

Glad to know I can quickly increase the score by increasing my payments I thought it would take months and months for the score to settle in and start increasing.  I just put that credit card in my safe and locked it up! I have another credit card which is a Discover but I'm doing okay with that one.  This is my only card that has a bigger limit on it with a co signer.