How much does a FICO score drop from maxing out your cards? (On average)

[SRT4kid93]

I know vantagescores can fluctuate wildly from util ratios. Sometimes as much as 150 points. I have heard FICO doesn't fluctuate like that. 

when I go to the FICO app and use their simulator it estimates maxing out my card will drop my scores about 100 points each. Has anyone had real life experience with doing this? What were the results when you maxed out your cards?

[MissLiz]

I recently had a situation where CapOne reported my card as not only maxed, but over the limit. You can read about here:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/I-Want-to-Throat-Punch-Capital-One/m-p/677874... 

My other cards were all reporting $0, but I still lost 27 EQ8 points and 19 TU8 points. Either they didn't report to EX, or EX has yet to update the balance, so no DP's there. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

I know vantagescores can fluctuate wildly from util ratios. Sometimes as much as 150 points. I have heard FICO doesn't fluctuate like that. 

when I go to the FICO app and use their simulator it estimates maxing out my card will drop my scores about 100 points each. Has anyone had real life experience with doing this? What were the results when you maxed out your cards?

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I personally don't have the data you are looking for. However, I have seen a couple member posts showing an over 100 point drop on Fico 8 when all cards were maxed out vs when utilization was near optimal. Both posters had thin, young files.

If you have 3 or more cards and max out only 1, score drop might be 20-30 points on Fico 8 depending on how much aggregate utilization increases.

[pizzadude]

I don't think that a 100pt drop would be out of band if you were moving from optimal utilization ( say AZEO ) to 100% maxed out across the board. 

[SRT4kid93]

That's what I thought! But then someone said only a vantage score would react so volatile. I have not seen my FICO score move significantly in either direction for months. I even  when having significant balance changes. Vantage on the other hand moved 160 points 1 month. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

@SRT4kid93 

Can you provide details on specific account changes before vs during the 160 point drop. Individual card utilizations, aggregate utilization and total reported balance.

Note VS3 puts a lot of weight on total balance in $ as well as utilization. Fico puts minor weight on balance in $. VS3 also looks at total available credit in $. Fico does not.

How low did your total available credit go in $ and what was it previously?

[SRT4kid93]

In that specific scenario in which my score dropped, and then gained 160 points was like this. At that time I had 1 card with a $300 limit, My balance went from $90 to $280. Resulting in the 160 point drop, then the next month, my balance went down to $35 and I gained back all those points. Again keep in mind this was not FICO, this was vs scores. 

You can tell vantage score cares a lot about util ratio because one month my util ratio went from 5% to 8% and my score dropped 2 points, even tho they reported another successful payment, and my util ratio was still under 10%, the 3% increase dropped my score. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

Thanks for the added info.

VantageScore does weigh utilization rather heavily. However, it also weight depth of credit heavily and looks at available credit in $ which Fico does not consider as a scoring factor. That drop to $20 in total available credit hurts VS3 score in addition to the ultra high 93% UT on the card and in aggregate.

VS3 wants to see a boatload of accounts. Having only one account puts you on the VS3 thin file scorecard. It will react more strongly to changes in available credit and utilization.

[SouthJamaica]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

I know vantagescores can fluctuate wildly from util ratios. Sometimes as much as 150 points. I have heard FICO doesn't fluctuate like that. 

when I go to the FICO app and use their simulator it estimates maxing out my card will drop my scores about 100 points each. Has anyone had real life experience with doing this? What were the results when you maxed out your cards?

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Welcome to the forum.

I assume you're talking about one card being maxed, while your other cards have low or zero balances. I think a typical point loss for that would be in the neighborhood of 20-25 points.

There's not much point in analyzing the point loss for all of one's cards being maxed out, because that would not happen in a vacuum. It would be accompanied by other bad things, such as credit limit decreases.

[Thomas_Thumb]

OP mentions having only 1 card with a $300 limit. Balance of $280 when seeing the big score drop.

Title mentions maxing out "your cards" not "a card". That suggests the OP now has or is planning to get more cards. Question appears to be what happens to Fico score if all cards become maxed out?