Serious Utilization Ding

[Anonymous]

So I'm newly rebuilding my credit currently have 2 secured cards and I've paid off 1 of 2 delinquencies, over the past couple of months I've been using the cards and letting 10% utilization report and score jumped from low 500's to about 638 (according to the crdit card app scores which say Fico 8, have Capital One & Discover), however I was reading something which said if you want to be given CLI's you meed to use a greater percentage to indicate to cc co's that you do indeed require more credit, so I used around 50% of my available credit and let it report, score dropped all the way back to low 500's and now barely budging even though utilization is now down to <10%, is that normal and what can I expect moving forward?

[Anonymous]

Your scores will bounce back as soon as you pay it off.   Unless you need the score for some application/loan, I wouldn't worry about it.   Also, you can get CLI's without reporting high usage.   Just go back to having your small amounts report - also - you can get them to see usage without reporting by using the card (any amount up the the max) and paying it off before the statement hits.   They show usage to the card company, but don't report to the bureaus.

[Anonymous]

Ah that makes sense. I did pay it off right away and scores are very slowly rebounding, one of the reasons I think it was such a big hit is because the 2 cards report to different agencies so according to the card and agency they reported to I used 50% when it was only really 25% of all available credit, I'm planning to pay off my final delinquency in the very near future as well so that should definitely propel me back up into the high 600's again 

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that increase of CL does not apply (I don't think) to a secured card. If someone can confirm this, but I don't think a creditor will grant a CLI on a secured card unless they do a PC to another card. 

Keep at it! Your utilization is one thing, but keeping on track with keeping it low and not late is another. You'll get there before you know it. I've been rebuilding for a year and went from mid 500s to just over 700. You can do it!