Maxing out any account is going to cause a drop in your score, although not a huge drop if you have $120k in credit. It's better to keep the BT under a threshold like 68.9% or 88.9% at least. Or do multiple BT's under 28.9% while keeping less than half your cards reporting a balance overall.
@travisp33 wrote:Contemplating some balance transfers moving debt currently only in wife's name to some of my account, and want to weigh savings vs potential score impact.
Scenario: 120k total revolving limits. All accounts paid in full every month (showing < 5% depending on reporting).
- What if I max a single card that has a $3900 limit with a 0% balance transfer?
- What if I transfer aprox 17.5k onto a card with 30k limit?
1. Maxing a single card will cause a dent in your scores.
2. 17.5k on a 30k card wouldn't be as bad, but it would be preferable to limit it to 14,400, or better yet 7,200.
@GatorGuy wrote:You will definitely take a double digit hit in your score for maxing one credit card. It could be more sizable depending on other factors in your profile.
Can confirm. Nearly maxing that single card is going to dent you. Just went through this.
Just know that it's temporary and as soon as you pay it down or pay it off it all comes back.
