We really need more detailed information to better assist. I had my truck loan 90% to 87% after a payment and I received an alert that the balance on an installment loan decreased and I went up 7 points. Everyone's credit profile is different.
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@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9%, and 88.9% are the known single card utilization thresholds and aggregate has an additional one at 8.9%
Paying down your cards below these thresholds, prioritizing the highest threshold as you go down (so all cards below 68.9% then all cards below 48.9% then all cards below 28.9% and then aggregate below 8.9%) will result in measurable score increases each time on most profiles.
Some have found additional thresholds that have smaller gains but those are less well defined.
Great response by Saeren. To dovetail on what he said and summarize, there are two scoring factors that FICO cares about here: Individual Utilization and Total Utilization.
The known thresholds for Individual are:
28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9%, and 88.9%
The known thresholds for Total are the same but with an additional big help when your total goes under 8.9%.
The practical advice in your situation is to get all cards to under 48.9%. (That's individual.) Then, if you are close to a Total Threshold, pay down debt even further to cross that.
Bear in mind that interest will be added during the last minute of a 30-day billing cycle, so bringing your balance down to (say) 48.7% may not be enough if the interest that gets tacked on takes you up to 49.03% (say).
I may have missed this, but is the loan you are thinking about a mortgage? If so, we'll need to tweak this advice a little to consider whether you can also create some extra $0 balance tradelines -- the mortgage models like that a lot.
Hi @Anonymous ,
How/do closed accounts with baances fit into these thesholds?
@Anonymous wrote:
Total Utilization:
The positive balance on a closed card counts toward your total revolving debt, but the credit limit on that card does not count toward your total credit limit. EXAMPLE: Suppose you have $3000 of debt and $10,000 of total credit limit on your open cards. You also have a closed card with a $4000 balance and a $5000 credit limit. Your total utilization will be ($3000 + $4000) / $10000 = 70%.
Individual Utilization:
Some people think a closed card with a positive balance is treated by FICO as if were maxxed out. (IU = 100%) Other people think it is ignore by FICO (for IU but not Total U). Others still think that maybe some FICO models treat it one way and other FICO models treat it another. I don't think we have consensus.
In my experience, it counts as you've stated towards the total debt and is not figured as a maxed out card, because it is closed. At least that's how it was on my credit report previously. 
