What is your credit card utilization

[Anonymous]

1% and less always.

[Cred4All]

1% UTIL which is a far cry from where I was 12 months ago at this time.

[wasCB14]

For people who absolutely never exceed ~5%...

Do you have a lot of cards from bonus chasing? You have big CLs for your income from a very mature credit history?

Do you have limited CC spend relative to your income/CLs? Or pay early?

Do you actively seek CLIs or new credit for the sake of even further diversification or lower utilization (as opposed to rewards/perks)?

Is it about having an emergency fund (a classification some dispute, but that's beyond the scope of my question)?

I have some income that varies from year to year, and other income that goes on a separate tax return. I provide a conservative figure to issuers (a figure I could easily document for any requested tax year and explain to someone who isn't a tax professional).

Maybe that leaves me accustomed to frequently having high utilization (not that I carry balances at anything other than 0%), but when I've had 29% utilization report and gone through unscathed, I guess it leaves me feeling a bit AA-immune and wondering why others would concern themselves over 2% vs. 4%.

In some sense, I don't really see the point of having huge limits if you never come close to needing them.

[Anonymous]

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In some sense, I don't really see the point of having huge limits if you never come close to needing them.

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How do you know when you'd come close to ever needing them?  Almost everyone at some point in their life is surprised by some major financially-straining event... loss of job, death of loved one, medical expenses, etc. all of which are of course unplanned. 

In fact, using what I just said above with the law of averages, anyone that's never come close to needing them [never having experienced one of these events] could argue that their chances of actually needing them at some point are increased

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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In some sense, I don't really see the point of having huge limits if you never come close to needing them.

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How do you know when you'd come close to ever needing them?  Almost everyone at some point in their life is surprised by some major financially-straining event... loss of job, death of loved one, medical expenses, etc. all of which are of course unplanned. 

In fact, using what I just said above with the law of averages, anyone that's never come close to needing them [never having experienced one of these events] could argue that their chances of actually needing them at some point are increased

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But there are limits as well, as you have to pay it back..   So, if you have say $1M in total CL, if emergencies meant that you had to utilize $800K, most people would be in trouble and would probably have to go the BK route.   In some cases, getting various types of insurance would be a better protection than just-in-case CLs which couldn't necessarily be used

[tcbofade]

I just paid my utilization down quite a bit... CRA's still reporting 25%ish, my up to the Monday excel sheet is reporting 10.8%, and I hope to be under that magical 8.9% by 01 January. 

[SarahJo]

1%-5%: I do not chase AZEO, never carry a balance and pay interest, and use my cards for what they're intended for...thus the utilization reporting (i.e. I refuse to only get 2% CB on gas just because my 5% CB card is processing a statement). 

Edit: $50,000 TCL, not including NPSL

[Pikaboo-icu]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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In some sense, I don't really see the point of having huge limits if you never come close to needing them.

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How do you know when you'd come close to ever needing them?  Almost everyone at some point in their life is surprised by some major financially-straining event... loss of job, death of loved one, medical expenses, etc. all of which are of course unplanned. 

In fact, using what I just said above with the law of averages, anyone that's never come close to needing them [never having experienced one of these events] could argue that their chances of actually needing them at some point are increased

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But there are limits as well, as you have to pay it back..   So, if you have say $1M in total CL, if emergencies meant that you had to utilize $800K, most people would be in trouble and would probably have to go the BK route.   In some cases, getting various types of insurance would be a better protection than just-in-case CLs which couldn't necessarily be used

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Holy Moly!

Anyone that has an $800,000. emergency needs more than high credit card limits. OUCH! 

I look at it this way: If my heat pump & furnace blow (and oh please heat pump don't be reading my mind) 

It would cost me about $12000 ish to replace both. Better to put that on a $25,000. card, cause I would need to carry a balance for a bit.

That's just an example- my heat pump is old and if it blows, I'll be tossing my laptop off the deck. Just in case you don't see me for a while. LOL

Have a Blessed & Beautiful Thanksgiving ALL.     

[Gmood1]

Utilization hoovers around or just over 1% reported the rest unreported, not sure of my exact TCL. I'm guessing just over $700K. I normally allow everything to report to the CBs. I carry balances on 0% promotions and pay them off before interest is charged. I have 16 to 18 CCs showing balances currently. All my CC's that will allow it, are set to autopay statement balances. That's excluding my 0% promotions.

[Anonymous]

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But there are limits as well, as you have to pay it back..   So, if you have say $1M in total CL, if emergencies meant that you had to utilize $800K, most people would be in trouble and would probably have to go the BK route.  

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But even so, that's a better option than not being able to deal with whatever problem you encounter.  I'd rather have the means of dealing with whatever financial catastrophe comes my way and know I can get through it, even at the risk of a BK than not be able to deal with it at all... as that situation could likely be worse than the BK if you think about it.