Needing a little score speculation

[Anonymous]

Long story short...I'm going to be on the road for about 9 months and would like to simplify my CC payments to one card during this time. My overall utilization is 4%, but if I use a convenience check from BofA to consolidate the debt, that card will be right around 50% utilization. I just got a CLI on this card so there's no increasing the limit at the moment.

There will be a construction loan in progress in the middle of this, so I'm curious if you think I'll take a huge score hit having one card of 16 at 50% and the rest at 0 or if I need to keep my utliization spread out among the 5 cards of 16 it is on currently?

Thanks in advance for any data points!

[Anonymous]

Opinion is mixed.  A number of people (myself included) think that the score penalties associated with individual utilization do not begin until you are at 50% at the earliest..  Thus if you were to keep your U at under 48.99% then there would be no penalty of any kind.  Such people have watched one or two cards go up to 45% or even higher with no score change at all.

Some other people think that the individual card penalty begins lower, e.g. at 30%.

To my mind, the money quote from your original post is:

      There will be a construction loan in progress in the middle of this....

Can you elaborate on what that means?  It could mean that, as of today, you have a construction loan which you will be in the progress of paying down it down during these nine months.  If so it shouldn't matter what your score is, since you have no need for credit.

Or perhaps it simply means "I think I will be applying for a loan during the next nine months."  In that case it means that you should care what your score is.

Can you clarify?

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the reply. I will be a joint applicant on the mentioned loan sometime in February/March so that's really the only reason the score potentially tanking worries me. With fees included, my potential plan would put the card at 48.19%. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you so much for the reply. I will be a joint applicant on the mentioned loan sometime in February/March so that's really the only reason the score potentially tanking worries me. With fees included, my potential plan would put the card at 48.19%. 

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As I say, there is a spectrum of opinion about whether an individual card at < 48.99% could experience a penalty (resulting purely from the individual U).

I belong to the camp that thinks there would be no penalty of any kind -- not even a fraction of one point.

But even the folks who think there would be a penalty would (I believe) tell you that it would be small.  In other words, your worry that your scores would tank is groundless, they'd say.  At least I believe that's what they tell you.  SouthJamaica is a good exponent of the "penalty exists at 30%" view, so if he sees this post maybe he can tell you what he thinks.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you so much for the reply. I will be a joint applicant on the mentioned loan sometime in February/March so that's really the only reason the score potentially tanking worries me. With fees included, my potential plan would put the card at 48.19%. 

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As I say, there is a spectrum of opinion about whether an individual card at < 48.99% could experience a penalty (resulting purely from the individual U).

I belong to the camp that thinks there would be no penalty of any kind -- not even a fraction of one point.

But even the folks who think there would be a penalty would (I believe) tell you that it would be small.  In other words, your worry that your scores would tank is groundless, they'd say.  At least I believe that's what they tell you.  SouthJamaica is a good exponent of the "penalty exists at 30%" view, so if he sees this post maybe he can tell you what he thinks.

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Thank you once again for taking the time to help. Based on these points, I think I'm going to roll the dice and roll it all into my BofA card. I've been trying  to find a way to not tap into any savings or contingency funds, but if my score takes a hit I'm not comfortable with before the loan, I'll just pay it back down to 30% before the aplication.

At a minimum, I'll have a good data point!

[Anonymous]

Great plan.  And I would be delighted to learn that an individual U of 48% has an effect on one's score.  I just lack your ability to test it.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great plan.  And I would be delighted to learn that an individual U of 48% has an effect on one's score.  I just lack your ability to test it.

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I'll be happy to report back after the dust settles on reporting. I'm going to pull the trigger right after the statement cut on the 22nd so I can pay off the other balances before that reports.

[Revelate]

My individual file doesn't see a penalty until 75%, that much I can conclusively state at least on EQ 08, and possibly EX 08 too (have to go look at my old data).

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

My individual file doesn't see a penalty until 75%, that much I can conclusively state at least on EQ 08, and possibly EX 08 too (have to go look at my old data).

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Thanks so much for the data point relevate. I'm already starting to come over to yours and CreditGuy's way of thinking. I got an alert this morning that reflected my Discover CLI & payment which took the U on that card from 38% to 22%. I did get a single point increase on EX and 2 on EQ, but I also had an inquiry on each file turn 12 months old so i'm hesitating to think that any score gain was gathered from getting that card below 30%.