Utilization and AAoA Thresholds?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@atarvuzdar wrote:

Hoping someone can help. I've searched the site front and back and can't seem to find anything about the different thresholds for utilization (both overall and individual CC) and AAoA.

Apologies for asking a question which has probably been asked a million times. Anyone have any info on this or could point me to where that info may be?

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Although the conventional wisdom on overall utilization is that it doesn't affect your score adversely so long as it's 9% or less, I have not found that to be the case. I find that as my revolving utilization moves around from below 1% to more than 4%, my FICO 8 score moves with it. I don't know what a "breakpoint" or "threshold" would be in that region, because I find it to be quite fluid.

On individual card utilization I have found 30% to be a real breakpoint in FICO 8. If I go even 1 percentage point over 30 I get smacked.

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I agree with this.   Going from 0 to 1% utilization I notice a small drop.   Each percentage point increase results in a small drop.   I think the utilization is thrown in the formula and so each 1 percent change will change your score.   I use this fact to change my score.   If I need 10 points within the next month or so, I take my utilization down to 0 and wait until they report, it always works.

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When you say that taking your utilization down to zero gives you the most extra points, do you mean all cards reporting zero?

If so, that is really at odds with what almost everyone else experiences.  Almost everyone experiences a substantial score penalty with all cards at zero (compared with a very low but still positive utilization, i.e. one card reporting a small balance). 

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I don't think he meant that, I think he meant where the percentage is rounded down to 0%, such as .4%, .3% etc.

[DaveInAZ]

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@masscredit wrote:

My auto loan is down to 51%. I'm hoping to see a few points after it drops lower than 50. I came across this thread while searching for non-mortgage utilization points. 

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That's exactly where I'm at, with my payment on the 16th I'll be down under 50%. According to CreditGuyinDixie: "There's some strong evidence that a util breakpoint exists at 49%, 29%, and 9%.". So I'll find out in a few weeks.

Interesting, my Fico scores are all bunched together - 721/720/719 EX/TU/EQ - but my car loan is with a small local credit union that only reports to EX & EQ. On my TU FICO I get a negative item "lack of recent installment account". But with my scores all so close together I don't see the point of adding a share secure loan. If EX & EQ start moving above TU then I'll consider it.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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When you say that taking your utilization down to zero gives you the most extra points, do you mean all cards reporting zero?

If so, that is really at odds with what almost everyone else experiences.  Almost everyone experiences a substantial score penalty with all cards at zero (compared with a very low but still positive utilization, i.e. one card reporting a small balance). 

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I don't think he meant that, I think he meant where the percentage is rounded down to 0%, such as .4%, .3% etc.

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I thought that was possible (that he meant that) but couldn't tell.  As you (SouthJ) know, the actual algorithm doesn't round down to zero.  Even 0.1% is rounded up to 1%.  But some credit monitoring services have a front end intereface that will represent a util of 0.1% as 0.

At any rate he might have meant a tiny but positive util (like 0.2%) or he might have meant truly zero.  That's why I asked.