10% / 30% Utilization question and FICO score...

[Anonymous]

A lot depends on scorecard, but you appear to be doing just fine!

[nosup4u]

Well I for one think you guys are rocket sciencists with this FICO stuff but I have a question.  I'm going to pay down some debt currently at 86% cc usage I have like 14 cards 3 loans and 1 car loan I'm trying to get my personal down below 30% I have a dirty file and still have some secured cards.   Here is my plan I am going to add 6500 to one of my secured cards which is on the verge of graduation.  Then pay down about 12k in cc debt that should put me around 28% given a few dollars here or there.  My real questions should I pay off 2 of my 3 signature loans or should I pay them down to below 8% The loans in question are a signature loan from CAFCU that I took out back in December for 1500 and the other is quick loan from DCU that I took out late July.  

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@Anonymous wrote:
A lot depends on scorecard, but you appear to be doing just fine!

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[Anonymous]

@nosup4u The question is which of your loans you can pay ahead without advancing the maturity date. You only need one loan at 9% or less or the aggregate between all loans to be optimal. See SSL thread.

[nosup4u]

I guess it would have to be the CAFCU loan its almost completed only 453 left do you think it would be wise to pay down the DCU quick loan to below 50% at least 

[Anonymous]

Preferably you want one that will remain open for a while to boost your scores. Remember, its the aggregate Installment utilization that matters. Read the SSL thread for all the details to make informed decisions.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I understand the break points for FICO scoring with UTL as it pertains to Total Available CL on my CR and user optimization for scoring.

I don't believe the break points for aggregate revolving utilization are as well defined as some posts would suggest. It is widely believed that 8.9% is important, but I haven't seen that demonstrated. In my experience, once I get over 3% or so my FICO 8 scores start to go down, and keep going down as I go up.

As far as indivdual accounts go, do the same break points apply towards FICO

It seems fairly certain that 30% is a major break point in individual utilization. IMHO it pays to always target 28% or less on any one account.

or is that just for creditor CLI determination as a DP? For instance, is FICO affected if XYZ CC utilization is 50% however total overall UTL on my report is 7% for all accounts in the aggregate?

Yes your scores suffer from having any single account at or near 30% or higher.

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[SouthJamaica]

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@nosup4u wrote:

Well I for one think you guys are rocket sciencists with this FICO stuff but I have a question.  I'm going to pay down some debt currently at 86% cc usage I have like 14 cards 3 loans and 1 car loan I'm trying to get my personal down below 30% I have a dirty file and still have some secured cards.   Here is my plan I am going to add 6500 to one of my secured cards which is on the verge of graduation.  Then pay down about 12k in cc debt that should put me around 28% given a few dollars here or there.  My real questions should I pay off 2 of my 3 signature loans or should I pay them down to below 8% The loans in question are a signature loan from CAFCU that I took out back in December for 1500 and the other is quick loan from DCU that I took out late July.  

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@Anonymous wrote:
A lot depends on scorecard, but you appear to be doing just fine!

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The only way to get a significant boost in your FICO 8 and 9 scores by paying down installment loans is to get them down to an aggregate level of 9% or less of the aggregate original loan amounts.

[Anonymous]

@SouthJamaica Depends on how you define significant. Usually over 10 points reported around ~65%. True, not well defined, maybe other smaller ones.

@Anonymous has proof of 9% threshold. The thread is linked in post 3 of Primer.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaicaDepends on how you define significant. Usually over 10 points reported around ~65%. True, not well defined, maybe other smaller ones.

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I would consider 10 points very significant.  I never experienced anything near that.  Never got more than a couple of points until 9%.

So I disagree with you about 65%.  What is your basis for that claim?

[Anonymous]

@SouthJamaica More threads than I can count. But it’s believed that it may be avoided on a long-term loan because the ageing gives the points that the paydown would have, so I think it’s a either/or. We don’t know exactly how it works.

I think I’ve got a thread from TT somewhere that might explain the concept, let me see if I can find it for you.