Another Util Data Point

[cem13]

Hey guys & gals,

I wanted to submit my data point regarding CC Utilization.  I have one CC reporting from a 0% balance transfer from two other cards.  The inital balance was $23,679 out of $25,000 for a 94.7% utilization.  Total available utilization is about $175,000.  I paid $500 and had a reoccuring charge that I did not catch in time.  So the overall balance was reduced $311 to $23,368 for a 93.4% utilization.  Overall utilization is 13.3%

I gained 4 points on EQ, 3 points on TU and 3 points on EX.  My conclusions are: 1) the utilization rounds to the nearest whole percentage 94.7% -> 95%.   2) There is a tier at 95% for each card.

I will keep monitoring my percentages to see if I gain points as I get the overall utilization to 9.49%.

[Anonymous]

You are correct that any decimals are rounded up to the next whole number.

I'm not so sure about the data point though.  The point gains you experienced were extremely small; 3-4 points can come from any number of things outside of utilization changes such as baddies aging along, inquiries aging or becoming unscoreable, AAoA increasing, AoYA increasing, AoOA increasing, etc.  If you were to allow your utilization to report back at the value that it was at prior and you lost those 3-4 points again I would say your data is concrete here... but in going in just 1 direction without double checking it there are so many variables and moving parts that go into your credit score that it's tough to say that your utilization change made the difference.

Most believe that the first CC utilization threshold is at 89%.  While I'm not saying it's impossible for one to exist at 95%, I'd tend to believe based on what I've read over the past year on this forum that one does not.