My EX score is the slowest to change, likes to wait to see what all this noise is from two dozen cards reporting before it makes a move. Things have been stable the last few months, and the general trend is up because of no apping and a general slow decline in balances, though a minor data point does turn up.
My Chase Freedom card is $1,500 limit, which makes it easy to ramp up the utilization. With Department Stores, had to use it for some Nordstroms purchases, so Utilization went as follows:
Nov 1 $384 to $836, 25% utilization to 55% utilization, EX score 803 to 800, 3 point drop.
Dec 3 $836 to $259, 55% utilization to 17% utilization, EX score 800 to 806, 6 point gain.
This is the only card which crossed 50% recently. Others are at 32% and 38%, and the rest of the amounts are moving around below 10% generally.
In mid-2015 as several cards transitioned below 50% each, so all went below 50%, there was a large general increase in all scores.
I am not at all against going over 50% if it makes sense for rewards or to take a low rate BT offer, but there are a few FICO points involved if a card does rise over 50%. It's not the end of the world, just one more nuance to how FICO looks at things.
True, FICO does not remember it.
The challenge for those of us who had / have debt is, the bank remembers, and until you actually get it paid off, FICO has no choice but to consider it 
The main point of bringing up the 50% topic is that it really is a trigger for score changes. Might not be all the points, but if one is trying to decide where to put resources, that goal of "under 50% on all cards" is worth trying.
@Anonymous wrote:Our friend Brutal Body Shots may be doing a CLD soon so that he can have a $300 CL card, for the primary purpose of testing the individual utilization breakpoints.
It's an entertaining gardening activity 
@Anonymous wrote:It is indeed.
One thing that will be interesting is if BBS does NOT detect any score hit by going from 5% to 55% on that card. Interesting because it will not discount your careful evidence that there does appear to be a breakpoint of 50% for you. You have established that several times in the last year I think. What it might mean is that FICO may be more generous with not imposing a penalty at 50% (individual) when one's total U is very low (1-5% say).
This is a conjecture I picked up from Thomas Thumb, I believe, but it strikes me as a good way to square the two kinds of reports (people who report no score impact and people who report a definite measurable impact). The people in the first group may be people with an ultra low total U and the people in the second group may have a total U that is higher.
The individual penalty might vary by score card too (dirty vs. clean, say). BBS is in a dirty scorecard.
Remind me what your total U is currently?
Ok, interesting thoughts. The other metric I would propose to track is, how many cards BBS has reporting any balance. I'm reporting balances on 17 cards out of 24, so 70% of my cards are reporting a balance, only 30% are reporting at zero now. In 2015 when I got them all below 50% individual utilization, virtually all cards were reporting a balance of some kind.
My overall utilization, using TU reported items and the associated limits, excluding the one remaining closed account with a balance, is just a shade over 6%, has been there for several months now.
Last app was in March, so about 8 months since the last new account was added.