help!!! Refinance Home Equity Loan is killing my utilization rate

[praise123]

4 years ago we took our mortgage and refinanced it to a home equity loan.  We did not know anything about it and it sounded great at the time.  We pay every month ontime, but because it is a home equity mortgage this is affecting my utlization rate.  the loan was for $90,000 the cost of our home and we are at $84,000 so we look like we have this big loan that we keep using at full utilization.  I talked to the company abd they said they cant report it like an installment because it is actually revolving credit because we can get money out of it, so what can I do to make Equifax and and Experian stop counting this towards my score utilization rate.

[jcstarkey8826]

I dont believe there is any way to change the reporting. Im assuming you have a home equity line of credit, as opposed to a home equity installment loan. So you might talk to your bank about what options you have as far as switching your HELOC to a HEIL, that way you wouldnt have a line of credit counting towards your util. Its a long shot, but let them know your concerns and they should do what they can to help.

[FrugalRican]

I don't think there's anything you can do (that I know of) to make Equifax and Experian stop reporting it that way.

As JC said, it's designated as a Home Equity Line of Credit. It's not a typical installment loan, at least not classified by the bank as such because it works the same as a revolving credit line would work.

And as JC said, you have to go to your bank to see what other options you might have.

[Booner72]

Yes, that's the big downer from HELOC's - learned that here. I would never have known that otherwise.

[Lel]

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@praise123 wrote:

4 years ago we took our mortgage and refinanced it to a home equity loan.  We did not know anything about it and it sounded great at the time.  We pay every month ontime, but because it is a home equity mortgage this is affecting my utlization rate.  the loan was for $90,000 the cost of our home and we are at $84,000 so we look like we have this big loan that we keep using at full utilization.  I talked to the company abd they said they cant report it like an installment because it is actually revolving credit because we can get money out of it, so what can I do to make Equifax and and Experian stop counting this towards my score utilization rate.

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Before you get too concerned about your utilization, could you tell us where you're seeing this high utilization rate?  Is it from this site, or from another credit monitoring site?