I believe I detected this morning a minor FICO 8 installment utilization threshold at 40%.
I picked up a group of small loans a few months ago, have been gradually paying them off, and have been watching EX FICO 8 and 2 on a daily basis to see what happens as aggregate installment utilization slowly drops.
I expected something to happen when I crossed 50% but nothing happened.
Today I crossed 40%, going from 40.7% to 36.4%, and my EX FICO 8 -- which has been very stable -- increased 2 points.
(Something else happened the same day... a hard pull. Theoretically that might have muffled the impact. But I doubt it, because my EX inquiries are already so high that another HP wouldn't have done a thing).
Update 8/19/20: EQ FICO 8 increased by 6 points. TU FICO 8 didn't move.
@Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I'm sure you're speaking of aggregate installment loan utilization. I'm curious of the individual utilization drops on the various loans as well, just for S&Gs.
I have never found individual installment utilization to have any effect at all on anything. I monitor the actual current individual balances, but not the reported individual balances. The only reported (as opposed to actual current) figure I track is the total since that's the one that's score-moving.
Next step will be to see what, if anything, happens when I move from the 30's to the 20's.
When I did a comprehensive test of the paydown of a loan a few years back, I remember that there did appear to be discernible thresholds, but they were painfully minor in effect until I got below 10% when all of a sudden I was in the promised land.
Frankly, I would pay my current loans down to 9% today -- and forego learning about possible 19% and 29% thresholds -- if I had the cash on hand.
What are "S&G's"?
@Dmessina666 wrote:lol........**bleep**s and giggles
No wonder I didn't know. I live a cloistered life 
@Anonymous wrote:SJ have you ever found time to be a factor when it comes to installment loans outside of utilization? I know there are negative reason codes pertaining to length of time revolving accounts have been established, but what about installment loans?
Well our revered gurus Thomas_Thumb and Revelate seem to feel that the age of a loan is a factor.
I personally don't think so, as I would find that kind of 'thinking' inconsistent with the 'snapshot' perspective normally exhibited by FICO algorithms.
But I've never had any loan long enough (since I've been paying attention to FICO) to develop any personal feeling about it one way or the other. My loans have all been young whippersnappers rather than venerable mortgages with whiskers.
When my Equifax report caught up to the installment utilization change, my EQ FICO 8 increased 6 points, confirming my suspicion that crossing 40% does mean something.