Can CL alone affect score?

[NikoD]

I'm sure this has been discussed  before but my search didn't come up with a satisfactory answer. Sorry if I'm being redundant. Does CL affect your score apart from your utilization? Hypothetically lets say that 2 credit reports are exactly the same in every way and both have 8% utilization of their available credit. However, one person has a CL of only $3,000 and the other has a CL of $30,000. I realize that lenders look at other things beside just the score but I'm curious if they would in fact have the same FICO scores?

[Anonymous]

CLs don't affect scoring directly, but affect utilization and manual reviews and lender-specific approval criteria.

[NikoD]

Thank you. That's what I thought. Just wanted some confirmation.

[bobebob]

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@Anonymous wrote:

CLs don't affect scoring directly, but affect utilization and manual reviews and lender-specific approval criteria.

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I seem to remember having a comment on one of my reports to the effect of "accounts with higher credit limits indicate creditors placing more trust in you".

At the time, I had one card with a 2.5K limit when the rest were all at 10K or above.  I have since gotten that one up to 7.5K and haven't seen any comments to that effect again.

Looking back over my FICO reports, I can't find the comment now.  It may have been on one of the FAKO reports.

[Anonymous]

Specific lenders may have stipulations like "previous experience with $5K+ CL" before they will approve an application.

[Peter1142]

I would be very surprised if there aren't any scoring buckets related to CL's. We simply do not know all the ways that scoring works.

[Anonymous]

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@Peter1142 wrote:

I would be very surprised if there aren't any scoring buckets related to CL's. We simply do not know all the ways that scoring works.

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http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/articles/fico_scores_credit_limit.aspx

[Peter1142]

Yes as far as the major credit scoring categories that are published it is not affected, but there is an aspect of FICO scoring called scoring buckets which are trade secret.

[RobertEG]

Yes it does.

If you get a CLI that, for example, doubles your CL, the % util on that card is immediately halved.  Simple numerator/denominator.

While the impact is less in overall % util, it will also, depending upon its CL compared to those of other cards, have an impact on averall % util.

Similarly, on the numertor side of the ratio, increasing current balance by the same $ amount on a low CL card will result in substnatilly more decline in scoring on a low CL card than on a higher CL card.  The reason why lower CL cards can quicly lead to problems, and require more close monitoring of usage.

Requesting a CLI is often done not to give more spending flexibility, but rather to improve FICO score.