Help me understand utilization

[koky]

so please help me understand utilization. Is utilization refered to as the overall utilization on all cards in use been reported  or just one card been reported at the end of the statement cycle. The reason why i ask is i have 3 cards. One has a CL of 5000 the others, 500 and 300. One card closed with 498 as the balance. so i get an aleart today that my score has dropped from 624 to 600. Isnt it too much for the score to drop because of that???

[Anonymous]

Your revolving utilization is calculated for each individual card then for overall.  If a single card is maxed out you get a ding for that.  Overall is what you see on your reports.

It is based on the balance being reported at the time the score is received.

When did the closed card happen and did the alert tell you it was due to utilization?

A closed card only affects your utilization if the balance and the CL are reported.

[koky]

oh ok... then i should be expecting another ding... but how much do you think i will recover from after i pay all off???

[Anonymous]

What is your utilization now and what are you paying it to?  YMMV but I generally guesstimate between 5 and 10 points for every 10% paid down.

[koky]

my overall CL is 5800 on all cards. my balance is 1494 lets say 1500... but paid 700 off but that will report on the 22 of this month...

[Anonymous]

Before the $700 payment your utilization is balance of 1500/5800 = 25.8% rounded up to 26%

After the $700 it is 800/5800 = 13.7% rounded up to 14%

Utilization rounds up.

[koky]

Oh ok...

[koky]

Planning to pay it to 1%...