cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Utilization of one card vs all my cards

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

Utilization of one card vs all my cards

I try to keep my usage under 1% all the time and currently have 16,500.00 total available credit of all my credit cards. My question is i bought a refrigerator and washer and dryer at lowes for 2k and my limit is 3300.00 which I am now at  61% on that card. How much if any does that affect my score vs my overall usage only being at 12%?

 

for instance if i pay my lowes card down to say 850.00 out of the 3300.00 will my score change ? it is currently 691 as filed bk back in 2015 and been building since. reaffirmed all debt secured by house and cars. 

Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

Overall usage matters more for your FICO score. Individual usage is more of a matter between you and the lender, although individual usage affects your mortgage score. Even so, going to 12% overall really isn’t a big deal. You’ve crossed one scoring threshold (8.9%) which you can cross back under by paying off some of the purchase. Overall though, don’t sweat it - cards are there to be used. Just pay it down and any points lost will be recovered.
Message 2 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

You would receive dings for 8.9%, 28.9%, 48.9% thresholds being crossed on individual utilization and you would cross the 8.9% aggregate utilization threshold with this charge. It could cost you 20+ points temporarily if the utilization thresholds around here hold true. 

 

Since you’re on a dirty scorecard though, the effect should actually be somewhat lower. 

 

You would get those points back once both your total and individual went back under 8.9%. 

 

850 would drop you back under 48.9% and 28.9% thresholds on individual and under 8.9% aggregate so you would regain most points lost. 

Message 3 of 10
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

Two things are going on here. There's overall utilization and there's individual card utilization. Individual card utilization is determined by the card with the highest utilization.

 

Thresholds are at 8.9%, 28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9%, and 88.9%. Scores are usually optimized when one reports less than 8.9% overall utilization and 28.9% individual card utilization. (Some have reported being dinged at points below those numbers.)

 

You're going to raise overall utilization to 14%, which has you crossing one threshold (from below 8.9% to below 28.9%). Your individual card utilization crosses two thresholds (from below 28.9% to below 68.9%). Paying off $850 will bring your overall utilization back to optimum, and your individual card utilization will cross one threshold. That should put you fairly close to recouping any points you lost.

Message 4 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

and by 850 i mean paying the 20000.00 balance down to 850.00 total not paying down 850.00 of the debt.

Message 5 of 10
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

That would bring you down to below 8.9% overall and below 28.9% individual. Unless you're one of those goofy exceptions, that's likely to bring your score back where you started.

Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

I'd ballpark the OP to lose 25-35 points as a generalized shoot from the hip prediction. 

 

15-20 points for the aggregate utilization threshold crossed and 10-15 points for the highest individual card utilization increase.

 

Paying down half of that amount for the purchases made IMO would allow all but maybe 5 of the lost points to return.

Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

 so do I need to stay below 8.9% overall and individual? or 8.9 overall and under 28% individual ?
 

Message 8 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards


@Anonymous wrote:

 so do I need to stay below 8.9% overall and individual? or 8.9 overall and under 28% individual ?


 

It depends.  Is your goal to constantly have the highest score you possibly could every day of the year?  Not losing even a single point?  If so, then what you want is to have all cards reporting zero except one, with the remaining card reporting a small positive balance.  It's possible to depart from that and not lose a point (e.g. some people experience no score drop when they have two cards reporting a small balance) but if the goal is to never lose a single point for even a few days then that's the strategy you need to implement.

 

A useful question for such a person, however, is why he would want his best score 365 days a year.  Most people have a different goal, which is to have a good enough profile that none of their creditors get weirded out if they do a soft pull, but otherwise not worry much about CC balances.  A good set of numbers here would be to keep total utilization at under 29% and every card at under 49%.  Even that is more stringent than you really need to follow in my opinion.  Then, if at some point you need to apply for credit, implement the AZEO strategy I described above (All cards at Zero Except One, with the remaining card having a small balance) -- do that about 40 days before you plan to apply.

Message 9 of 10
Trudy
Valued Contributor

Re: Utilization of one card vs all my cards

Very good point CGID.  I know I've obsessed over my scores (particularly since it was a process to rebuild) and once hitting 800 strive to keep it there.  But what's the point if I don't need to app anything.  Clearly paying bills on time and reducing interest paid, but a score drop due to utilization should not be my concern if I'm spending wisely.  I must remember that.  It's been suggested I can't get CLI because I barely spend anything on my cards.  Technically I don't need a CLI if I'm not using but I'd like to do some remodeling and use a rewards card.  Problem is all of those, even my newest which was only a 5K CL is not enough to take advantage of the rewards.  My only cards 20K and higher do not have rewards and won't PC.

 

I needed to hear that.

FICO - 8: 05/05/23
Message 10 of 10
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.