Slight utilization oops... how bad should I feel?

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

I've been paying down my balances dramatically (once or twice with a balance-chaser behind me), and had been calculating the impacts on util% along the way, but left a closed-with-a-balance account out of the calc. So instead of 1% I'm now reporting 13%, but still with only one open account reporting a balance. 

Going down from ~50% to 13% gave me 40 points on my EQ FICO (according to Scorewatch) so I know it's the right thing, and I've been chanting my "one balance ten percent" mantra for weeks (which really confuses my SO), but how "bad" is it to be at 13% instead of 9.9% utilization? 

I would pay that closed account down faster, but it's my lowest APR (0%) so I've been hesitant to speed it up when I had balances with non-zero APRs to deal with. I may start doing that now though, for next month's reporting. 

EQ is 690, others (based on recent pulls) will probably be a touch over 700. Going to pull those later today. 

[user5387]

There are diminishing returns with paying down balances, and your optimal utilization may be different from that of another person.

[Stralem]

If you're anywhere south of 30%, I wouldn't stress over utilization.

That 10% thing is just an OCD way of manipulating scores right before an application.

Just my personal opinion.

[EW800]

I agree that anything south of 25-30% is good.  I did see a bit of a bump when I went below 10%, however I think under the 30% range did the most.  With all of our profiles being different, YMMV obvously.  

[Revelate]

Hard to completely say as it probably depends on your individual report, but for reference when I was doing my maxxed tradeline testing I dropped from 660 -> 646 at both 13 and 27% aggregate utilization including the maxxed out tradeline penalty, so we're likely talking 10ish in this case.

Will be interested to see your datapoint when you get it if you don't mind sharing!

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

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@Revelate wrote:

Hard to completely say as it probably depends on your individual report, but for reference when I was doing my maxxed tradeline testing I dropped from 660 -> 646 at both 13 and 27% aggregate utilization including the maxxed out tradeline penalty, so we're likely talking 10ish in this case.

Will be interested to see your datapoint when you get it if you don't mind sharing!

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Well, for what it's worth, EX and EQ both report my latest utilization. EX is up 35 points (723! via myFICO) and EQ is up 41 points (692 via scorewatch). TU doesn't show the latest updates yet (still shows 46% util) and is still 670 (myFICO). So I'm guessing when my two latest cards report in to TU, it should be right about 700, which is a nice improvement all around. I have 2 inquiries on TU, 3 on EX, and none on EQ. 

[takeshi74]

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@NoAnchoviesPlease wrote:

Going down from ~50% to 13% gave me 40 points on my EQ FICO (according to Scorewatch) so I know it's the right thing, and I've been chanting my "one balance ten percent" mantra for weeks (which really confuses my SO), but how "bad" is it to be at 13% instead of 9.9% utilization? 

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Not that bad.  Consider the generic advice of keeping utilization under 30% max.  10% or less is for tweaking -- generally just prior to applying for anything to squeeze out a few additional points.

If you really want to dig into it then see if you can find Bob Wang's charts on one of the other sites.

[Involver]

Utilization has no memory so it really doesn't matter at all unless you're planning on apping for anything.  

As others have said though try to keep them as low as you can but don't stress over fine tuning.

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

Appreciate the feedback and sanity check folks. 

I am planning to apply for a couple of things in the foreseeable future, but I think the 40 point jump from my current scale-back will be good enough. And I think that keeping most of my cards at a zero balance on teh reports will help too. Happily PIFed the two cards that report next week just now and it feels weird but good.