FICO hit going from 1/7 reporting to 4/7 ??

[expatCanuck]

It's tax time, and I owe.  Have the funds, but it'll impact my cash flow for a month or so.

Currently, I have 1 card reporting, at 24.9% utilization.  Aggregate util is <5%.

Any thoughts on how much of a FICO hit I'd take if I allowed small balances to report on up to 3 more cards (i.e. - 1 card @ 24.9%, 3 cards <2%; aggregate would remain under 5%)?  All of these cards currently have no Payment Due; if they report a balance, I'll have 'til early/mid/late May to pay them in full.

[Anonymous]

Depending on your profile, I'd shoot from the hip and say you'd lose 8-12 points per bureau for moving to > 50% of cards reporting balance while still maintaining ideal aggregate utilization.  Your mortgage scores would see more of a hit.

[Kree]

I've had to carry a balance for a while and have passed it around to different cards. I think my best numbers were with 1 card under 48.9 and 3 at 0.  Versus 3 cards under 28.9 and 1 at 0.   All of my cards carrying balances even when under 8.9  saw the lowest scores.

YMMV, but depending on your total number of cards, I think 1 or 2 cards with relatively higher percentages might be better than 3-4 cards with lower uti.

[Anonymous]

Hi Expat.  Are these cards your only open accounts?   Do you have LOCs or loans or anything else?  Some people, for example, have several student loans and a car loan -- and thus even when they have exactly one card reporting a balance they might have six open accounts reporting a balance.

Also, is your question just a kind of fun theoretical exercise?  (Nothing wrong with that!)  Or is the possible score drop something that worries you?  If so, is there a particular reason why you'd be worried about losing scoring points for a month?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@expatCanuckwrote:

It's tax time, and I owe.  Have the funds, but it'll impact my cash flow for a month or so.

Currently, I have 1 card reporting, at 24.9% utilization.  Aggregate util is <5%.

@Any thoughts on how much of a FICO hit I'd take if I allowed small balances to report on up to 3 more cards (i.e. - 1 card @ 24.9%, 3 cards <2%; aggregate would remain under 5%)?  All of these cards currently have no Payment Due; if they report a balance, I'll have 'til early/mid/late May to pay them in full.

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It appears that you have 7 cards.

I'd guess no change in Classic Fico 8 going from 1 to 2 cards reporting, 0 to 5 points going from 1 to 3 reporting and 5 to 10 points going from 1 to 4 cards reporting - assuming AG UT maintained under 5% and additional cards reporting are single digit UT%.

[expatCanuck]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Hi Expat.  Are these cards your only open accounts?   Do you have LOCs or loans or anything else?  Some people, for example, have several student loans and a car loan -- and thus even when they have exactly one card reporting a balance they might have six open accounts reporting a balance.

Also, is your question just a kind of fun theoretical exercise?  (Nothing wrong with that!)  Or is the possible score drop something that worries you?  If so, is there a particular reason why you'd be worried about losing scoring points for a month?

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Beyond the 7 CCs in my sig, we have a mortgage (reporting) and a HELoan (opened in December, not yet reporting -- don't know when/whether that'll happen). 

The question is practical.  My EX score is too low for my liking, but I dislike being cash poor even more.  So I'm trying to strike an acceptable (to me) balance between FICO hit and maintaining money in the bank.

[Anonymous]

Are you planning to apply for a loan during April or May?  If not, why would it be a problem if your EX score dropped from it's current 736 to (say) 716?  My guess is that if you do experience a score drop it will be far less than 20 points.  But even if it did drop that much, why would you care, given that it is just for a couple months?

[Anonymous]

It could very well be a mental thing for him CGID.  I'm sort of the same way.  My scores are down around 12-16 points now verses last month simply based on the reporting of several accounts.  While I know it doesn't matter in the slightest in terms of how my creditworthiness is viewed by current or potential lenders, seeing a score drop still feels like I'm failing at something or doing something "wrong" for my profile.  I'm pretty good at overcoming this, though, as I know in 2-3 weeks time if I wanted to I could be right back at the scores I had... but, I understand how this may be difficult for others, especially if they are straddling the line between good vs excellent scores.   

[expatCanuck]

What BBS said.

I worked hard to drag my scores up, and the EX score in particular is not yet at the point where I'm comfortable seeing a drop.  If it was (say) 760 or better, no worries.  But I want all those buggers in the green, and staying in the green.

[Anonymous]

OK.  I guess I was just thrown by Expat's use of the word practical to describe his concern.  The way most of us use that here, it means that there is some clear way we want to use our score to achieve a concrete credit end.  E.g. someone is asking about how the mortgage scores work because he is buying a house (rather than just curious for curiosity's sake).

I suppose in this case the practical concern could be I will have a panic attack if my EX score drops below ____ and I would like to stay out of the ER next month.  That's very practical!

Panic attacks (or milder versions of them) are by definition not rational -- they are not amenable to someone giving you some hyperlogical sermon.  Still, it's important to at least be aware at least on a "meta" level that one's score drop phobia might be pronounced enough to cause one to take actions against one's financial interest.  That should be a concern.  The whole point of credit and scores should be so that you can use it any time it makes sense to do so.

I am a good example of that in the area of savings.  Because I got into financial trouble once in my life, I ended up developing extreme habits of austerity that are now no longer fully rational, to the point where I realize I am never going on vacations or in other ways using my saved money to bring myself happiness.  Saving money is good, but one's savings are there ultimately to be used -- again, something I need to work on a bit.