@Anonymous wrote:
I am an authorized user on 2 Bank of America credit cards with perfect credit history and same history length. I had a 25 point score increase being added to the first one, with no credit score change being added to the second one a week later. My credit utilization is currently at 3%. Removing the second BoA credit card would put me back at 1% credit utilization. My question is would my score change? Has anyone had experience in this situation? Thanks!!
Going from 3% to 1% utilization would be unlikely to show any significant difference in FICO scores, unless it also caused other factors to change. Let's say you have 5 cards total, and those are the only two showing any balance at the last statement, you might gain a few points at best for having only one card reporting a balance. It really depends on your overall profile. If the account is the same age or older than your average age of accounts, you may actually see a decrease in FICO scores due to your average account ages falling if it is removed. Many factors come into play here.
Edited to add: I've merged your two threads together after moving the new one to Understanding FICO Scoring.
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:And I have noticed that almost every time my aggregate utilization changes a full percent my FICO 8 score changes. In my profile the difference between 9% and 1% could be 15 points.
When you say 9%, are you actually talking 8.9% and that you're not crossing the well known threshold there? If you see ~15 points up to that threshold point, how many do you see in crossing it?
I watch the rounded percentages, so when I say 9% I'm referring to a rounded 9%, which could be 8.9% in actuality.
I personally haven't experienced much different behavior in the 9 to 15% area than in the 1 to 9% area. I.e. in both regions, I tend to find that almost every whole number change in aggregate utilization means points won or lost.
@Anonymous wrote:
@BH1985 wrote:It may be because I went to 50% utilization on one of my cards. I guess that's an important detail I left out.
Yes, I believe that was what caused your score gain then. It would be interesting to see the same test replicated on your file without a single card crossing over a threshold, say 28.9%. Of course to accomplish that you'd need to raise balances most likely on multiple cards, so a new variable possibly gets introduced in additional cards with balances. Ideally the best way to do it would be with your highest limit bank card, if you have one that's got a limit great enough to increase aggregate utilization 3% without crossing a threshold on that card.
I think BH's score dropped because a card went up over 50% 
Reduced by 10 points in the earlier comment.
@Anonymous wrote:
Not to derail this, but in reference to SJ’s point changes with each percentage point of utilization, I think back to a discussion about your profile and points earlier in the year. I don’t recall if this was ever put to bed or not so forgive me if it was, but I wonder if your changes in score with miniscule UTI changes is simply due to the dollar values in play.
Your aggregate CL is enormous, and going from 1% to 5% UTI even only on your reported limits is still a change of over $23k. I wonder when looking at the fringe profiles like yours, if some scoring factor exists that’s simply related to dollars and comes into play, as in “it’s only 4% but that’s still a big chunk of cash”.
Now, 23 grand may not be a significant amount of money to you (I don’t know your personal details, not my business), but to the public at large that’s a pile of money and for most people that much difference in balances would reflect a major change in financial conditions. Maybe there’s something in the math to consider large dollar values irrespective of what percentage of total limits they represent for a person when the total CLs grow to truly monstrous sizes. And since income isn’t factored into scoring, your ability to repay it would not have bearing on the effects on your scores.
It's possible. But my gut feeling is that it's all based on percentages, not dollar amounts.
I didn't always have these credit limits. They came about gradually over time. So I've had experience with lower limits too.
But your theory could be right; I just don't know. I can tell you that there is something which is possibly more distinguishing about my profile... its newness. My average age of accounts is still under 4 years and I always seem to have some recent inquiries and some recently opened accounts. And it's also possible that another oddity -- the 31+ year age of my oldest account -- puts me in a scorecard that expects things to be different than they are.