Hubby's utilization sky high because of auto loan...

[fuzzybean]

The "debt to credit ratio" shows 81% and the "Total Debt to Credit Ratio" shows 76%.  In reality, he has just an $800 CL combined on 2 cards and only has a $4 balance.  Is it normal for a car loan to be included in this?  It is listed under "Total Installment Accounts" which I guess makes sense.  Is something not right or do we have to pay the car off or way down to make the utilization change?

[scarrollprint]

It would be included in the debt to income but not sure why its going towards his Util.  What does it actually say on the report as far as a type of account.

It might be how its coded that its counting towards his util....

[fuzzybean]

Total Mortgage Accounts	0	0	0
Balance	$0	$0	$0
Credit Limit	N/A	N/A	N/A
Debt to Credit Ratio	N/A	N/A	N/A
HideTotal Installment Accounts	1	1	1
Balance	$9,847	$9,847	$9,847
High Balance	$12,155	$12,155	$12,155
Debt to Credit Ratio	81%	81%	81%
HideTotal Revolving Accounts	2	2	2
Balance	$4	$4	$4
Credit Limit	$800	$800	$800
Debt to Credit Ratio	1%	1%	1%
HideTotal Other Accounts	0	1	0
Balance	$0	$233	$0
HideTotal Open Accounts	3	4	3
Total Balance	$9,851	$10,084	$9,851
Total Credit Limit	$12,955	$13,188	$12,955
Total Debt to Credit Ratio	76%	76%	76%
Total Monthly Payment Amount	$380	$380	$380
Total Open Accounts with a Balance	2	3	2

[scarrollprint]

Looking at that I think your just getting confused by the term.

Your fico score doesn't look at balance vs origional loan.

If you buy a house for 200k mortgage the credit they gave you was 200k. Even if you pay it off down to say 3k there would still be a debt to credit ratio.

Your auto loans aren't considered when it comes to Util for fico scores. 

[fuzzybean]

Good to know.  Thank you,

[RobertEG]

Both installment and revolving accounts are included in your overall util of credit, but they are treated very differently.

Revolving accounts measure your effective use of discretionary credit limits. You have a % util against credit made available, and FICO bases almost all of your util of credit scoring on util of revolving credit.

Installment accounts dont have a % util of discretionary credit, they have a % remaining of orig. loan amount.  All installments start at 100% of loan amount, and thus it is expected that a consumer will have high % of loan balances reported. 

Installments also usually represent debt obligation that is the least likely to go into delinquency, as consumers will usually pay their mortgage and auto bills before their revolving accounts.  They are thus not higly weigthed in risk of payment analysis, which is what FICO is.  

Installments are NOT affecting the more significant % util of revolving, and are NOT a major contributor to scoring of overall risk in your util of credit.