@SouthJamaicawrote:
@Thomas_ThumbT_T my scores bounce around quite dramatically with fairly small utilization changes. Several of my FICO 8's are presently down over 60 points because my utilization has increased to 15.75 percent with 1 card at 49%, and another at 63%. But even when everything is at 28% or less, and overall utilization is 9% or less, which has been the case almost every month since I've been posting on this board, very slight changes have resulted in serious point gains and losses. You have observed that this might be because my profile is relatively "young" and the FICO 8 and FICO 9 models give extra bandwidth to utilization for young profiles, but for this reason one should be wary of broad rules.
I have some good 0%, no-fee, balance transfer offers which I will be using, but will only be using 28% or less of it.
SJ - I have no doubt your profile influences score as you state. Fico can react quite differently depending on both the profile and CRA. Going over 9% AG UT is a major event and going over 49% on individual cards can be as well.
That said, with single digit AG UT% and individual card UT% under 29%, I found # cards reporting to be the only thing influencing my score on a regular basis. I have not observed adverse effects on my EQ Fico 8 Bankcard score with max individual card UT floating between 5% and 20% during the 2 years I have monitored score thru Citi. Sure, adding/removing an inquiry significantly impacted score but, that's not a regular event for me. [data points with one INQ in red, with zero INQ in blue]
I did not expect my EQ Fico 04 score to drop from 809 to 764 just by going from 2 of 6 to 6 of 6 cards reporting rather small balances - that's 45 point drop! When I did this a 2nd time my EQ Fico 04 dropped from 809 to 765 going from 3 of 6 to 6 of 6. This demonstrates repeatability. I have reported higher aggregate and individual utilizations while maintaining 809 so I am convinced the score penalty is # cards related. Other profiles may not see such pronounced drop due to cards reporting.
Some profiles may be prone to a few points being lost if a card reports between 9% and 29% UT. Regardless, I think under 9% AG UT and under 29% individual UT is a good general rule. It allows some spend/payment flexibility without risk to score or credit worthiness. To me swings of +/- 10 points are expected natural variation and not a concern.
@Thomas_Thumbwrote:
@SouthJamaicawrote:
@Thomas_ThumbT_T my scores bounce around quite dramatically with fairly small utilization changes. Several of my FICO 8's are presently down over 60 points because my utilization has increased to 15.75 percent with 1 card at 49%, and another at 63%. But even when everything is at 28% or less, and overall utilization is 9% or less, which has been the case almost every month since I've been posting on this board, very slight changes have resulted in serious point gains and losses. You have observed that this might be because my profile is relatively "young" and the FICO 8 and FICO 9 models give extra bandwidth to utilization for young profiles, but for this reason one should be wary of broad rules.
I have some good 0%, no-fee, balance transfer offers which I will be using, but will only be using 28% or less of it.
SJ - I have no doubt your profile influences score as you state. Fico can react quite differently depending on both the profile and CRA. Going over 9% AG UT is a major event and going over 49% on individual cards can be as well.
That said, with single digit AG UT% and individual card UT% under 29%, I found # cards reporting to be the only thing influencing my score on a regular basis. I have not observed adverse effects on my EQ Fico 8 Bankcard score with max individual card UT floating between 5% and 20% during the 2 years I have monitored score thru Citi. Sure, adding/removing an inquiry significantly impacted score but, that's not a regular event for me.
I did not expect my EQ Fico 04 score to drop from 809 to 764 just by going from 2 of 6 to 6 of 6 cards reporting rather small balances - that's 45 point drop! When I did this a 2nd time my EQ Fico 04 dropped from 809 to 765 going from 3 of 6 to 6 of 6. This demonstrates repeatability. I have reported higher aggregate and individual utilizations while maintaining 809 so I am convinced the score penalty is # cards related. Other profiles may not see such pronounced drop due to cards reporting.
Some profiles may be prone to a few points being lost if a card reports between 9% and 29% UT. Regardless, I think under 9% AG UT and under 29% individual UT is a good general rule. It allows some spend/payment flexibility without risk to score or credit worthiness.
I also think it's a good general rule.
But for some profiles, such as mine, it would fall far short of maximizing the scores.
In my case, following that rule, there could well be a range of 20 points or so, even with the percentage of accounts reporting a balance staying constant, which it usually does.
Your experience, of undergoing substantial variation only with big swings in the percentage of accounts reporting, is not something I can comment on, because I have never had a big swing in the percentage of accounts reporting. I never ever get as high as half of my accounts reporting, and almost always have 33% or less.
I have significant score changes from changes in overall utilization (btw going from 9% to 11% has not proven to be any bigger an event than 7 to 9% or 11 to 13%) and in individual utilization (here my experience does correlate with prevailing wisdom, as the difference between 29% individual utilization and 31% utilization has proven to be big).
I recently went from <1% to ~32% on my only reporting card. Total/aggregate util remained under 8%.
IIRC, my TU dropped 8 (808 --> 800), EQ dropped 2 (750 --> 748), and the friendly EX dropped 4 (721 --> 717).
