How Can this be Hurting me?

[eddymvp]

I lowest my Utility to 16% from 80% and this is still showing up as a negative factor on my report.

You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.

Ratio of your revolving balances to your credit limits
16%For FICO High Achievers [?], this ratio is 7%, on average.

Your FICO score evaluates your total revolving credit [?] balances in relation to your total credit limits on those accounts. In your case, this ratio of balances to credit limits is too high.

Keep this in mind: This credit usage ratio is one of the most important factors to your FICO score, so you should work on paying down your balances. Your FICO score looks at the ratio of revolving debt, but not in which accounts the debt resides. Therefore, consolidating or moving your debt from one account to another will usually not help your FICO score since the same total amount is owed.

[marty56]

What they are telling you is that your score would be better if you reduced your util below 10% to around 1 - 3 %.  Also they are showing you the util that the average high FICO achiever has so you have and idea of what to shoot for in becoming one.

Use the score simulkator and play with util to see how you can optimize your score realtive to util.  It is the quickest way to improve your score other then time.