At what percentage does your 'balance remaining' start helping your score?

[cr101]

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

[cem13]

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@cr101 wrote:

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

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This depends on what "bucket" you are in.  However, for me, there seems to be clear thresholds at 90%, 50% and 10%.  I am sure there are other key factors.  Last week,  I took out a new car loan and it reported 3 days ago and it did not affect my score.  I did get a few point bump when my Mortgage dropped to 89%.  Installment loan utilization has a much lower impact than a revolver in terms of utilization. 

I do not want to appear insensitive, but you do not seem that you are "certain" it affected your score?  If you do not know EXACTLY how it affected your score, you will not be able to forecast future action.  Remember, FICO scores are simple mathematics.  I say simple because the algos are addition and subtraction (X point increase for this and Y point substraction for that).  The issue is Fair Issacs spends millions to keep the algos a secret.  It is the science of predicting future behavior based on past behavior.  Just because you "think or understand" your score took a hit, it might not have.

[SouthJamaica]

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@cr101 wrote:

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

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When your aggregate installment loan utilization percentage gets down to 9% you get a big boost in FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores.

[Revelate]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@cr101 wrote:

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

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When your aggregate installment loan utilization percentage gets down to 9% you get a big boost in FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores.

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Pretty much this.  The one breakpoint that I'm confident of before that (though I haven't nailed it down explicitly) was a minor score boost with the majority of the total points coming at the line that SJ suggests.  The 1/3 vs. 2/3 ratio of points gained seems pretty consistent across most scorecards I've seen reported here anecdotally.

[iced]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@cr101 wrote:

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

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When your aggregate installment loan utilization percentage gets down to 9% you get a big boost in FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores.

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Pretty much this.  The one breakpoint that I'm confident of before that (though I haven't nailed it down explicitly) was a minor score boost with the majority of the total points coming at the line that SJ suggests.  The 1/3 vs. 2/3 ratio of points gained seems pretty consistent across most scorecards I've seen reported here anecdotally.

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What counts as a "big" boost here? 30 points? 60 points? If I have one installment loan today that's at say 40% and I paid it down to 5%, how much of a score jump should I expect?

[Revelate]

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@iced wrote:

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@Revelate wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@cr101 wrote:

I refinanced my car and from what I understand, the new loan that was created is affecting my score. About what percentage should I pay it down to if I want to get a score boost? How much of a boost can I expect?

---

When your aggregate installment loan utilization percentage gets down to 9% you get a big boost in FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores.

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Pretty much this.  The one breakpoint that I'm confident of before that (though I haven't nailed it down explicitly) was a minor score boost with the majority of the total points coming at the line that SJ suggests.  The 1/3 vs. 2/3 ratio of points gained seems pretty consistent across most scorecards I've seen reported here anecdotally.

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What counts as a "big" boost here? 30 points? 60 points? If I have one installment loan today that's at say 40% and I paid it down to 5%, how much of a score jump should I expect?

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Going from 99% to some small number like 5% is generally between 20-45 points on FICO 8 looking at all the anecdotal reports on this forum.

Mine was about ~22 points in my old tax lien / collection / 60D scorecard total (small differences between bureaus), roughly 7 and then 15 for the two bumps... you should've already gotten one on my data TBH, in your case I'd bet it was about 10-12 points if what I know of your file is correct so you'd be looking at 20-24 points potentially as a SWAG.

[Anonymous]

My buddy recently got 27 points on EX version eight. He opened up the SSL and paid it down immediately <8.9%.

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:
My buddy recently got 27 points on EX version eight. He opened up the SSL and paid it down immediately <8.9%.

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Any idea on before and after score and scorecard?

Who'd he go with for the loan?

[Anonymous]

@Rev He went with a Navy SSL. Sorry, fell asleep, but I contacted him and got all the DPs for you.

Give me a few and I'll type them up for you!

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@Rev He went with a Navy SSL. Sorry, fell asleep, but I contacted him and got all the DPs for you.

Give me a few and I'll type them up for you!

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Thanks bud!  Yeah NFCU absolutely works for reindeer games.