credit utilization question

[Anonymous]

so when they say don't go over 10 percent credit utilization does that mean per card or all together. For instance if 1 of my cards has a 25 percent credit utilization but the other ones are at 2 percent and I'm still under the 10 percent threshold totally is that what matters our is it per card?

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:
so when they say don't go over 10 percent credit utilization does that mean per card or all together. For instance if 1 of my cards has a 25 percent credit utilization but the other ones are at 2 percent and I'm still under the 10 percent threshold totally is that what matters our is it per card?

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The best starting point for optimizing your revolving utilization is to let one card report a small balance ( less than 9% ), while the other cards report a zero balance. 

That would be 9% utilization of the CL for that particular card.

[SwiftTone]

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@pizzadude wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
so when they say don't go over 10 percent credit utilization does that mean per card or all together. For instance if 1 of my cards has a 25 percent credit utilization but the other ones are at 2 percent and I'm still under the 10 percent threshold totally is that what matters our is it per card?

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The best starting point for optimizing your revolving utilization is to let one card report a small balance ( less than 9% ), while the other cards report a zero balance. 

That would be 9% utilization of the CL for that particular card.

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REALLY?! I thought it was just <9% of your overall CL

[pizzadude]

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@SwiftTone wrote:

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That would be 9% utilization of the CL for that particular card.

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REALLY?! I thought it was just <9% of your overall CL

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You're better off having the card with a balance showing <9% utilization since FICO scores both your total combined utilization and your individual card utilizations.

[MarineVietVet]

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@pizzadude wrote:

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You're better off having the card with a balance showing <9% utilization since FICO scores both your total combined utilization and your individual card utilizations.

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Plus FICO looks at the number of accounts reporting balances at the same time. So having fewer balances has a positive impact on scoring.

[SwiftTone]

So if I have accounts with CLs of: $4000, $4000, $1250, and $1000. If I only let one of the $4000 cards report a $200/5% balance, then my overal utilization is 2%. This is the ideal?

[pizzadude]

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@SwiftTone wrote:

So if I have accounts with CLs of: $4000, $4000, $1250, and $1000. If I only let one of the $4000 cards report a $200/5% balance, then my overal utilization is 2%. This is the ideal?

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It is the recommended starting point for optimizing your revolving utilization.    Once card with a balance less than 9% utilization.   You can experiment by allowing a slightly higher or lower balance to report.   

[SwiftTone]

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@pizzadude wrote:

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@SwiftTone wrote:

So if I have accounts with CLs of: $4000, $4000, $1250, and $1000. If I only let one of the $4000 cards report a $200/5% balance, then my overal utilization is 2%. This is the ideal?

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It is the recommended starting point for optimizing your revolving utilization.    Once card with a balance less than 9% utilization.   You can experiment by allowing a slightly higher or lower balance to report.   

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But do I have the general idea? Keep one card utilization under 9% and total utilization under 9% as well. All other cards should be a 0%

[OhioCPA]

Yes, you have the idea.

If one card is at 9%, and all other cards are 0%, your overall Utilization will be less than 9%.

[rootpooty]

well heres my situation. last month 9% reported on eq fico i let a small balance report on 2 cards and the rest 0 (i have 4 cc accounts) now this month i pretty much maxed out a small cl card and let the rest report zero 6% reported and eq fico went up 9 pts.