Effect of maxed out card on FICO score

[Anonymous]

So my current average score is 805.
All of my 11cc are 0 balance or a few dollars.
I recently opened a new account for a BT offer. And it will be at 95percent
While it is at 0apr.
Overall utilization over all cards will be 18 percent with this new balance
How much of a hit should I expect to my scores with a new account, maxed card, and higher utilization.
I've never asked for cli on my cards, which I will start doing now to bring utilization down
Which company's give SP cli, and how often can I ask, I have a Citi, Amex, Barclays,chase discover, Sam's club, Walmart, Macy's, belk, Kohl's, VS, cap1.
Any advice would be useful,

[Shooting-For-800]

I would guess 10-30 points.

Amex, Discover, Cap One, Walmart are SPs.

GL!

[pinkandgrey]

Considering all your other cards are so low/zero, I would assume the hit won’t be too significant. Either way it will come back up quickly once you pay down the balance. 

Walmart, Cap One, Discover, Amex, and Citi all do SP CLIs. Macy’s and Kohls MIGHT but I’m not sure. 

[SBR249]

Can you not try to recon the CL or request a CLI before you BT the balance over? Sometimes lenders can be understanding if you just tell them you are planning a large BT and you are concerned that your current CL would result in too high of a util. 

[Anonymous]

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@SBR249 wrote:

Can you not try to recon the CL or request a CLI before you BT the balance over? Sometimes lenders can be understanding if you just tell them you are planning a large BT and you are concerned that your current CL would result in too high of a util. 

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This ^

The only card that you need to be concerned about is the BT card.  Even without CLIs on your other cards, your total util will still be fairly low.

The scoring hit (whatever it turns out to be) will be because you went from all cards individually at < 8.99% to having a card at > 90%.

Figuring out a way to keep the BT card at under 88% will be the best choice you can make.

PS.  Are you planning to apply for credit in the next 11 months -- outside the BT card?  Are you buying a house, buying a car, etc?  If not, then you don't need to concern yourself about the impact to your score.  Scores only matter when you are applying for credit.  If you believe the BT card will be under 69% (or better still under 49%) by the time you next apply for credit, you can ignore all this.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Any advice would be useful,

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Welcome OP.  Your score hit will come from 2 factors:  Aggregate utilization crossing over the 8.9% threshold and highest individual card utilization going from something low/ideal to maxed out.  I'd ballpark a 10-15 point hit for each of these factors depending on your profile.  Keep in mind that aggregate utilization is King to individual card utilization so even though the threshold crossed overall of 8.9% is very low, it's considered relatively strongly.  So, you'd likely looking at a 20-30 point drop overall.  Your FICO scores will still be in a strong place regardless, so there's nothing really to sweat there.

Two things that I would do if I were you though would be to try and raise the limit on your BT card as others have mentioned already and also going for some first-time SP CLIs on your other cards.  I'm not familar with all of your lenders, but can comment on some.  You've said you've never gone for CLIs on any of them, but you didn't mention the age of those accounts.  For the advice I'm about to give, my assumption is that all of your CCs have been open for 6 months or greater.  If they're younger than that, outside of Discover and Amex I'm not sure SP CLIs would be possible.  You can try for them online with Capital One and Citi, as they allow an opportunity every 6 months.  You can try for Discover and Amex in under 6 months (Amex as little as 61 days and Discover around 3-4 months).  With Amex, request 3X whatever your limit is... so if your current limit is $5k, ask for $15k as an example because they'll SP CLI approve you as much as that amount.  Some of your store cards like Walmart or Sam's (Synchrony) may be able to be increased via SP CLI by calling Credit Solutions; I'm not sure about all of your store cards.  Chase would be a HP (not SP) so don't ask them for anything.

If you figure out on paper what total amount of overall credit limit increases you need to bring your aggregate utilization down to under 8.9% you can sort of set a goal for yourself.  If successful, you'd get back the (say) 10-15 points of the (say) 20-30 total you lost.

[Kforce]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I recently opened a new account for a BT offer. And it will be at 95percent

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Wide range possible, between 20-90 points.
You will see your number when it reports.
No one can tell you with any accuracy

You can not let the balance sit and pay all at the end.    
When taking a BT you will need to pay minimum every month (1-3%) depending on the card.
Many on the forum believe you should pay 1.5 to 2 times the minimum each month.
Others figure monthly payment as (BT-Amount / (Term - 1)) for equal monthly payments.

If not paying minimum, your BT card utilization will be lowering each month by (4--9)%.   

If not going for new loans or credit cards, it is just a number in a database
I would not care about my Fico Score !!

Enjoy the low cost loan  

[Anonymous]

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@Kforce wrote:

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Wide range possible, between 20-90 points.

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Where are you pulling that 90 point ceiling from?  90 points is what one may expect in going from ideal to maxed out aggregate utilization.  That's not the case with the OP, who is only moving across 1 aggregate utilization threshold, 8.9%. 

[jamie123]

Like other posters have already mentioned...You need to call for a CLI before you do the balance transfer. I used this method after I bought my house. I apped for 2 new CCs the day after my closing and recieved high starting CLs so I could use them to furnish my house while the 0% interest was in effect for 12 to 18 months. I had the cash to furnish my house without using credit but it was invested in stocks that were doing really well so I didn't want to cash them out when they were growing nicely.

I maxed those 2 cards out in about 3 months and then made good size monthly payments so as not to freak out the lenders but at the end of the 0% offers I still had a good size balance on each. (About 50% UTI each) Stocks were still doing really great so I didn't want to sell yet. Apped for a CITI Diamond BT card. It came with a $10K starting CL and a 0% 12 month offer. Did a recon and was able to get the CL up to $20K! Transfered the 2 balances from the house furnishing cards to the CITI Diamond. Stocks are still doing REALLY great with about a 140% return since I apped for the original 2 CCs so I still have about $4K to pay on the CITI card and am now paying interest each month but I am making way more on the stocks and the stock increases are more than paying that interest expense.

This is how I use my good credit scores to make money for me.

[Kforce]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Kforce wrote:
Wide range possible, between 20-90 points.

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Where are you pulling that 90 point ceiling from?  90 points is what one may expect in going from ideal to maxed out aggregate utilization.  That's not the case with the OP, who is only moving across 1 aggregate utilization threshold, 8.9%. 

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I was looking at a chart that I saved from this forum on an old post.

It was just a picture with no info as to aggregate or single card.

You are probably correct, most likely aggregate

Regardless the score loss, it will rebound.

OP will know soon enough

The chart: