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FICO Individual Card Thresholds

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CreditMagic7
Mega Contributor

FICO Individual Card Thresholds

Lifting scraps from off tables here and there or wherever they can be found and run across this yesterday.

 

FICO individual credit card thresholds are 14.9%, 29.9%, 49.9%, 69.9% and maxed out.

 

May i been following under the false impression that the overall (Total Util. %) so-called standard threshold of 29.9% also applied ln linear fashion to the individual cards too?

 

Not that it's markedly affected my own FICO scores (and it doesn't seem so), but when doing usage on any of the cards in this stable it's been a routine practice to run up to +/- this percentage before PIF or rolling down.

 

Can anyone link or just explain if those are indeed either close or actual confirmed points of change to the FICO ladder?

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Individual Card Thresholds


@CreditMagic7 wrote:

Lifting scraps from off tables here and there or wherever they can be found and run across this yesterday.

 

FICO individual credit card thresholds are 14.9%, 29.9%, 49.9%, 69.9% and maxed out.

 

May i been following under the false impression that the overall (Total Util. %) so-called standard threshold of 29.9% also applied ln linear fashion to the individual cards too?

 

Not that it's markedly affected my own FICO scores (and it doesn't seem so), but when doing usage on any of the cards in this stable it's been a routine practice to run up to +/- this percentage before PIF or rolling down.

 

Can anyone link or just explain if those are indeed either close or actual confirmed points of change to the FICO ladder?


Unfortunately the people who are likely to test have limits that make it unfeasible to do much with aggregate.

 

If I ever get access to a brand new file (guinea pig kids with AU accounts or something on some stupid daddy kid credit bonding and education plan) I'd chase it, but otherwise we'd need someone who routinely spent enough to max out their tradelines on any given month, and it wouldn't be ethical to suggest someone not pay off their credit card debt as quickly as possible.

 

I am pretty confident under Beacon 5.0 that there's no threshold at 14.9% aggregate, I had datapoints from 13 and 27% and identical scores with identical one maxxed out card reporting two cycles apart and no AAOA change, inquiries, or tradelines changing... was as clean a datapoint pair as possible.  If I had to estimate there's one at 33%, and we've certainly heard the 10% line since the dawn of time.  Given that installment utilization has a 10% breakpoint seemingly for FICO 8 and presumably FICO 98, I think that's at least a reasonable educated guess on aggregate.  

 

I don't think there's that many individual breakpoints, but my file is such maybe it's different in clean buckets but I doubt it.  Went from 2% to 64% on a $8400 line and none of scores that I had access to budged.  I'm planning to go test individual breakpoints concretely with good datapoints at some point but I have credit needs which are more important than picking up a $200 Discover Secured card so that plan is on hold indefinitely.

 




        
Message 2 of 4
CreditMagic7
Mega Contributor

Re: FICO Individual Card Thresholds

Well i sat down last night with a calcualator and since this month i am testing the 50% of cards carrying a balance, while i'm making payments on some of them i already figured up paydowns to some of those percentages and will gauge the results going forward.

 

It's actually pretty interesting experimenting with your own profile in trying to draw out varying comparisons from best vs downward trend scenarios.

 

Thanks Revelate for your response.

Message 3 of 4
Thomas_Thumb
Senior Contributor

Re: FICO Individual Card Thresholds


@CreditMagic7 wrote:

Lifting scraps from off tables here and there or wherever they can be found and run across this yesterday.

 

FICO individual credit card thresholds are 14.9%, 29.9%, 49.9%, 69.9% and maxed out.

 

May i been following under the false impression that the overall (Total Util. %) so-called standard threshold of 29.9% also applied ln linear fashion to the individual cards too?

 

Not that it's markedly affected my own FICO scores (and it doesn't seem so), but when doing usage on any of the cards in this stable it's been a routine practice to run up to +/- this percentage before PIF or rolling down.

 

Can anyone link or just explain if those are indeed either close or actual confirmed points of change to the FICO ladder?


On an individual card basis enough posters have reported a score change crossing a territory from above 50% to below 30% that a threshold exists somewhere in that range. Thus, I typically recommend maintaining aggregate utilization under 9% and individual card utilization under 30%. Experian defines card max out as 90% or higher utilization. I tend to agree with that statement.

 

Note: If pressed, I admit data from Inverse and others suggests there may be a few points available dropping AG UT from the 8% to 9% range to the 4% to 5% range.

 

Is under 9% critical on an individual card basis? I really have not seen clean data showing a difference between under 30% and under 9% [particularly on CC accounts with some age] as long as aggregate utilization is maintained low enough.

 

Note: clean data means same # cards reporting and AG utilization close to constant. Here's an extreme example of clean data where # cards and even AG UT is fixed

 

The tester has 10 cards with a total $100 k credit limit. Two cards, one high limit & one low limit, are selected for evaluating impact of individual utilization. For each data point only these 2 cards are allowed to report a balance. One card has a CL of $20k and the other $1k. In this test total reported balance to be maintained around $1k. The low limit card is the test subject (listed 1st) - aggregate utilization held constant at 1% for this example.

 

a) Max out condition (95): $950, $50

b) High utilization (75%): $750, $250

c) Above midpoint (55%): $550, $450

d) Below midpoint (45%): $450, $550

e) Under 1/3 (25%): $250, $750

f) Low level (8%): $80, $920

 

I believe conditions e and f should yield the same score regardless of profile as long as the accounts aren't new (say 6 months of reporting history or more) and the profile has at least 4 revolving CCs. Depending on scorecard, conditions d-f or even b-f may yield the same results. 

Fico 9: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 8: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 4 .....:. EQ 809 TU 823 EX 830 EX Fico 98: 842
Fico 8 BC:. EQ 892 TU 900 EX 900
Fico 8 AU:. EQ 887 TU 897 EX 899
Fico 4 BC:. EQ 826 TU 858, EX Fico 98 BC: 870
Fico 4 AU:. EQ 831 TU 872, EX Fico 98 AU: 861
VS 3.0:...... EQ 835 TU 835 EX 835
CBIS: ........EQ LN Auto 940 EQ LN Home 870 TU Auto 902 TU Home 950
Message 4 of 4
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