How is utilization calculated?

[jamevfan]

I have the cards below with the exception of conns added 3 months ago is utilization calculated overall and how does CLI factor in to that?

[Anonymous]

Utilization is calculated per card based on the limit versus what is owed on statement balance. There is overall Utilization as well. They're both considered in your score but, for a CLI, that's really based on lender requirements. I don't see your cards as I am on mobile, though.

[jamevfan]

Just trying to figure if im ok. My fico ssys im at 14% and i didnt know which calculation they are going by but it must be overall 

Cap 1 secured 270 of 500 limit

Cap 1 QS1 680 of 2000

Conns 0 of 4000

Amazon 200 of 6000

Victoria secret 0 of 250

Macys 300 of 800

Kohls 150 of 300

Firestone 80 of 800

Fingerhut 0 of 1700

Kays 0 of 1600

Walmart 500 of 4000

[Anonymous]

Yes, overall.

[Anonymous]

Buy my calculations on those balanced is 10%. Are those your current or your statement from last report?

[jamevfan]

Synchrony just increased my limits on 3 cards this evening 

Walmart from 1100 to 4000

Conns from 2000 to 4000 

Amazon from 4000 to 6000

Their calculation was before the CLI

[Anonymous]

That could be it. Too lazy to recalculate lol.

[jamevfan]

Possibly but thanks for doing it.

[austinguy907]

There's some debate about how to approach this subject but, I find it best to base utilization off of each account instead of taking the overall approach that some sites come up with when looking at scoring.

Next up would be the kind of company you're keeping with all of these retail cards.  Think more Quality over Quantity and you'll start seeing some better limits.  I'm guessing these are recent aquisitions as well?  

What kind of plans do you have in the next 1/2/3 years?  I see you have your tri-pull scores listed in your signature so it's safe to assume you have a mortgage at this point.

[SouthJamaica]

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@jamevfan wrote:

I have the cards below with the exception of conns added 3 months ago is utilization calculated overall and how does CLI factor in to that?

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1. For FICO scoring purposes both overall revolving utilization and per-card revolving utilization are factored in. I.e. you can have overall low utilization, yet lose some points for having one card with high utilization.

2. Utilization is almost always computed on the basis of your statement balance.

3. CLI decisions do not directly use the utilization calculation mentioned above; they do, however, take into account internal utilization figures. E.g., Barclays issued some blog posts indicating that people whose daily balances are very low or zero, and people whose daily balances are very high, are both less likely to get CLI's, than people who are using their Barclays card significantly but not too much. They don't give you the numbers, but I'm guessing the sweet spot was in the 10-30% range. They do not care what your balance is on the statement date. It's the daily balances that interest them because that shows, in their view, both profitability and possible danger, in the card relationship.