Maxing out Credit Cards.....On purpose?!

[Anonymous]

I have carefully read every word of this thread and I really don't understand what the advantage of this experiment is.  I am not surprised that your scores went down when you maxed all of your cards, of course that is predictable.  I am also not surprised that your scores are improving as you pay down the debt.  None of this is a surprise, I suspect you expect that lenders will view this as you having the ability to manage higher limits but I doubt that will be the case.  The credit game is a marathon not a sprint.  When you first begin your build/rebuild you will get large limit increases as you establish a history but of course things eventually settle down.  Given your modest limits (no disrespect intended) I don't see how you will gain anything in this scenario.  I would simply pay these cards off, make all of your payments on time as you have been and your scores will grow as will your limits.  The high achievers here play the long game.  Assuming you don't need access to your credit is not ideal, none of us knows what's around the corner in terms of health, employment etc.  

[Girlzilla88]

There was no BIG advantage really it was just an experiment to do while I was gardening for 2 years before my next big purchase LOL.       The drop I was expecting I was expecting it to raise a bit as it should over time and no offense taken I only just started improving my credit and got my first Unsecured cards end of December last year so I wasn't expecting 10k CL I wasn't even expecting the 3800 I originally started with with the Visa I got lol much less that Amex would approve me too but I also had a middle score of 750 and refinanced my car and did a few other things and now that I'm letting my age average grow for a few years and I have my house I just didn't know what to do in the 2 year wait.       I guess that was the 'gain' I was looking for was to grow my limits while still gardening and making payments to show consistency etc.     It's not that I assume I don't need it I just have my cushion so to speak if I did hit a rock.     Another words I don't rely or lean on knowing I have the Cards if that makes more sense?!     But yea that is basically that.   

[Girlzilla88]

Haven't posted an update in a while so thought Ehhhh  why not ..I'll let you guys/gals know where I currently sit.         So as of Today my Equifax is 618, TU is 642 and Ex 641 my utilization is still 97% overall....funny thing is I added a small loan to see if it would hurt more or drop it significantly etc since that would show all my 'lines' being used (Credit Card, Auto, Real Estate and Personal), but it dropped it 11 points at first (last month) and this month it went back up 10 points so no change at all really LOLOLOL......Ok I think my experiment is pretty much good to go.....again I wanted to stretch it out for the two years and see how it would originally hurt and how much it would gain by paying it on time for the whole two years but I just can't it's killing my OCD and it didn't drop as bad as I thought it would so that's good to know           I'll update you when I have them all back to under 10% as to where the scores sit at that point and after that I will be still gardening for my next big purchase!    TBD .....maybe I'll put a teaser or something early 2021 but until then........Have a great day!   

[Anonymous]

Can you refresh my memory as to what your starting point was (AZEO?) aggregate utilization wise?  I'm curious to see what your Fico score drops were from the state you started in and then how much was lost going to 97% overall utilization.  Also what was your total number of accounts with balances before/after and your highest individual utilization card at the start as well? 

Based on your starting numbers, you'll have an idea of where your scores will end up once you return back to that state.

[Girlzilla88]

I was under 30% utilization for sure I don't believe I was at AZEO because that didn't seem to jump me like it did everyone else at least to me I didn't see a big difference when I had several at 0 except the one at 8% but when I did have 8.9% or less across the board that is what I saw shot my points 50+ in difference .....but I will have to look back and hopefully I posted what my scores were before I got the house....that was the whole point to this was once I got the damage from the house I wanted to have something to do in my two year gardening wait and I wanted to see if the 'algorithem' they did if I paid X amount in 2 years if it would truly jump to X score...but I didn't think to do one card at a time and did them all at once X(........Let me see if I can find where they were before the house I know my middle score was 711 when they pulled it for my home loan but I don't remember which one had that score ....

[Girlzilla88]

I know I did have balance on all 3 cards I had at the time....(I didn't have the HD yet til after the home) and my Car on my report for sure.

[Girlzilla88]

Ok @BrutalBodyShots I took it back to April (I know we were approved for my Home loan on Feb 14th though because I thought it was funny getting it on Valentines day)    But if I did my calculations correct APRIL 2019 when the Home was FINALIZED my FICO 8 was sitting at EQ 718, EX 733, and TU 729          so roughly 100 point difference to max out 'everything' AND add a Card and a tiny loan (600) I was scared to put anything high lol.....so bad yes but not the under 600 I was expecting to hit of course I still pay over the minimum payment (NO MISSED/LATE EVER!!!)  

[Girlzilla88]

Those 700 scores in April are also BEFORE the House was reporting as well

[Girlzilla88]

At the end of May I upp'd my Utilization to 97, then June 99%   EEEEEEEEEEP...... my Mortgage didn't actually POP up until July since my first payment wasn't due until June.      (we moved in May 1st!)   

[Girlzilla88]

So July 2019 when everything was reported high utilization, plus new card (including Home) my FICO 8 sat at EQ 625, EX 644, and TU 644.