Utilization Question????

[UpAndComing74]

Hello all!! I want to pick your brain for a moment.  I currently have 5 credit cards and 1 Furniture store account thats counting as Revolving.  Im at a 614 TU right now and I would love to be at 660 for a new auto at the end of the month.  My cards are as follows:

1. Target--171--200 Limit  85%

2. Credit Union-3950-4000 limit 98%

3 Cap1-790-Credit Limit 750  105%

4 Cap 1-547 Credit Limit 500  109%

5 HSBC-1139 Credit limit 1100-103%

6 Tidewater 2280  2400 Credit Limit--95%

Ive paid the Target, Cap 1, Cap1 and HSBC to zero.  They should report within the next two weeks. With those 4 cards brought to zero and the other two still maxexd out....will I recieve a score bump at all!  Just looking for 46 TU points here!!

Thanks,

[UpNComing]

Nice name

[Anonymous]

6230/8950 = 70%

That'd still be your overall utilization, and that's still pretty high with two remaining balances.

How much further down can you bring that?

[castlefox]

Yes paying down your delt will help your credit score. 

70% is rather high, ideally they would like to see under 20% or even lower.

[UpAndComing74]

So its an overall utilization and not individual cards.  I somehow thought reporting zeros on 4 of them would help. But in answer to your question..as of now I have about $1000 more to throw at them, but dont know if that would help.  I dont need max rise at this point, I only need 46 points. Im just hoping Util from 105% to 70% does the trcik.

[Anonymous]

Throwing down $1,000 would only get you to about 58%. The difference between 70 and 58 is probably not as noticeable as if you got it under 50%.

You might be better off saving that $1000 for the downpayment.

And yes, the utilization is based on overall utilization, although it "helps" to have those cards at 0 because it won't look as bad when you go for the loan process.

[UpAndComing74]

Yep, thats what I figured.  Didnt want to throw it all at the cards just in case a down payment made it look better.  Thanks! I was approved through my CU at 11% but 46 points will jump my tier and allow 6%.

[castlefox]

I thought your FICO reflected you total utilization percentage as well as individual card utilization. 

[Anonymous]

11% is not bad.

Just wait and see what happens once the scores reflect the newest 0 balances.

You could always just pay 11% for 6 - 10 months and later try to refi at a better rate.

[MarineVietVet]

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@UpAndComing74 wrote:

So its an overall utilization and not individual cards.  I somehow thought reporting zeros on 4 of them would help. But in answer to your question..as of now I have about $1000 more to throw at them, but dont know if that would help.  I dont need max rise at this point, I only need 46 points. Im just hoping Util from 105% to 70% does the trcik.

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It's both overall and individual utilization. Plus scoring looks at the number of total accounts reporting a balance at the same time.

So you'll be helped by:

* Less than half of your revolving accounts reporting balances

* Overall utilization lowered

* Individual utilizations lowered

But you'll still be hurt by:

* A very high overall utilization at 70%

* Two cards that are still maxed out

I think you will see an overall increase in your score but in my opinion you won't get 46 points from this. But the only way you'll know for sure is wait for everything to update.