FICO SCORE, CL, & UTILIZATION QUESTION

[Anonymous]

Ok here goes, i'm gonna try to explain this as best as possible.  Say that I have two cards with low limits($200-$300) and both are at about 60% UTL..Would this affect FICO scores less than say, a person who has the same two cards with a high limit(3k-5k). On the other side, would paying debt on both, down to 10% on the $200-$300 cards, give you less of a score bump than it would on the 3k-5k cards............does that make sense?

Thanks for the advice!!!

AUBURN

[llecs]

Paying down the lower-limit CCs might give a slightly less of a score bump than the high-limit CCs, but probably not for the reason you might be thinking. Util is a percentage. FICO doesn't care if you have high limit CCs or low limit CCs so that's why util is key. If you have 60% on low limit CCs and 60% on high limit CCs, your util is still 60% and paying both down would have the same effect, everything else being equal. However, there's a FICO scoring code for too high of revolving balances. This is weighed much less than util, but someone with 60% util on high limit CCs is at a disadvantage compared with someone with lower limit CCs for that reason, not to mention facing a higher DTI, higher payments, more debt payoff, etc., and other factors not related to FICO.

[Anonymous]

Thanks llecs, that made perfect sense to me!! I was just curious about this, I haven't seen a post on it, so i decided to write one myself. I agree; and,  I would hate to know I had 60% on a 5k limit...YIKES!!! That would take me forever to pay.

WAR EAGLE

AUBURN