At what limit is a card no longer counted towards utilization

[Anonymous]

With a little bit of luck I'll be able to bump my Amex limit up to $50k in 4 weeks and would absolutely love to chime in with test results right away using that line.

[Anonymous]

I know you are also planning to obtain an ultrasmall CL on one card to test conjectures about individual utilization.  Would be so sweet if you could begin to give us answers to both this spring.

[awp317]

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Im not sure if Im following this correctly. But my CSR with a 78k limit reported a 14,480 balance today and that dropped me 13 points on EX. If I add up my avalible credit its included in that too. 

[JLK93]

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@awp317 wrote:

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Im not sure if Im following this correctly. But my CSR with a 78k limit reported a 14,480 balance today and that dropped me 13 points on EX. If I add up my avalible credit its included in that too. 

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Your score drop suggests that your CSR is indeed being included in overall utilization. The only way to determine if it is being counted for individual utilization is to let this be your only card reporting a balance. If your score drops significantly, it is not being included in individual utilization. If your score remains stable or increases, then it is being included in both individual and overall utilization.

[Anonymous]

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@awp317 wrote:

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Im not sure if Im following this correctly. But my CSR with a 78k limit reported a 14,480 balance today and that dropped me 13 points on EX. If I add up my avalible credit its included in that too. 

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Are any of your other cards reporting a positive balance?  (not counting cards with a huge credit limit.)

[JLK93]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi BBS.  I think we only had one test result from one person recently on the thread you and I are thinking of, and this was a test case that was protracted over 100 posts and 9 weeks.  And even then there were data that were still not supplied at the end of that, so I am doubtful about the reliability of it.

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I thought that iced and 909 both provided good test results. Of course, there still need to be more tests.

[Anonymous]

What were the results?  I got lost after the 70th or 80th post. 

[JLK93]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What were the results?  I got lost after the 70th or 80th post. 

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iced let his 3rd revolver report a zero balance on December 19th. That left him with only 2 50K cards reporting balances. 

Results:

1. In early January his Discover Experian FICO updated. There was no change.

2. On January 11th his Citi Equifax FICO updated based on a December 27 pull. There was no change.

3. ided payed for a CCT 3 bureau pull on January 10. TU increased 11 points. However, there is some doubt about the baseline Transunion score. Experian was still unchanged.

909 went from 4 out of 7 cards reporting balances to 1 50K card reporting a balance. All scores increased.

[Anonymous]

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@JLK93 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

What were the results?  I got lost after the 70th or 80th post. 

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iced let his 3rd revolver report a zero balance on December 19th. That left him with only 2 50K cards reporting balances. 

Just for clarity, his third revolver reported $0 to the three bureaus on Dec 19?  Or he paid it down to $0 on the 19th?  When did the credit bureaus update their databases with the new $0 balance and how do we know?

Do we know what his individual utilization was on this third card prior to the pay-to-zero?  That's relevant because if it went from 55% to 0% (for example) he'd be trading one penalty for another.  I asked about this at the time but didn't get an answer.

Results:

1. In early January his Discover Experian FICO updated. There was no change. 

You mention in bullet #2 below that the Jan 11 EQ update was actually based on Dec 27 data.  Is it possible that the EX update in ealy January was based on Dec data as well?  What date might it have been in Dec?  How do we know that the Dec 19 pay-to-zero was reflected in the database by Dec 27?

2. On January 11th his Citi Equifax FICO updated based on a December 27 pull. There was no change.

3. TU TBD when Barclays next updates.

909 went from 4 out of 7 cards reporting balances to 1 50K card reporting a balance. All scores increased.

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My memory is that whatever information we did get was as a result of a lot of prompting (over several dozen posts back and forth) and "I'm not sure" responses.  Iced is a great guy and well intentioned but the end result after all of that lowered my confidence in the test (as well as tiring me out).  Especially given that this is in fact an easy thing to test with CCT.

*  CCT pull of all three bureaus with scores and CC balances, all on the same day.

*  Change the CC balance

*  CCT pull of all three bureaus with scores and CC balances, all on the same day.

It's precisely because this is something for which it IS so easy to have a certain indisputable test mechanism -- that when we don't have it, I think we don't have anything.

Far better to say, thank so much for your awesome intentions, really appreciate it!  Can we just repeat this test again with a clear instrument?  Should only cost you $2.

[JLK93]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@JLK93 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

What were the results?  I got lost after the 70th or 80th post. 

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iced let his 3rd revolver report a zero balance on December 19th. That left him with only 2 50K cards reporting balances. 

Just for clarity, his third revolver reported $0 to the three bureaus on Dec 19? He said that the statement cut on Dec 18th. 

When did the credit bureaus update their databases with the new $0 balance and how do we know? We know from experience that Experian would have updated soon after December 18th and that Equifax would have certainly updated by December 27th.

Do we know what his individual utilization was on this third card prior to the pay-to-zero? He didn't say. iced said that his overall utilization decreased froim 3% to 1%.

Results:

1. In early January his Discover Experian FICO updated. There was no change. 

You mention in bullet #2 below that the Jan 11 EQ update was actually based on Dec 27 data.  Is it possible that the EX update in ealy January was based on Dec data as well? When the Discover Experian updates it shows the current score. That is my understanding anyway. 

How do we know that the Dec 19 pay-to-zero was reflected in the database by Dec 27? Statement closed on December 18th. I have never seen Equifax take that long to update. 

2. On January 11th his Citi Equifax FICO updated based on a December 27 pull. There was no change. 

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