Utilization?

[Joeychgo]

My utilization is at 1% -- and it only says very good -- what does it take to get exceptional??

[Thomas_Thumb]

You can have an Excellent/Exceptional rating at 4%-5% reported aggregate utilization and even higher.

What's your highest individual card utilization? Also, what percentage of your open CCs are reporting non $0 balances?

A personal line of credit (PLOC) is often classified as a revolving account. Do you have an open PLOC that you have drawn against? Any closed accounts with a balance?

[FicoMike0]

Here on my fico, I'm showing 1% utilization and exceptional.

7 of 13 zero,

Highest 12% (just hit the $200 sub on that one!)

[BrutalBodyShots]

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@Joeychgo wrote:

My utilization is at 1% -- and it only says very good -- what does it take to get exceptional??

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First thing, be aware that those arbitrary ratings don't actually matter / no lender looks at those fluff terms when making a lending decision.

To answer your question though, it's because that the "Amount of Debt" metric still presents an opportunity to you. As one example, if you don't have an open installment loan you're missing out on the installment loan utilization boost to your FICO scores. The summary software could consider that as something keeping you from "exceptional" as far as an arbitrary rating goes.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Installment loans help the mix rating and an open loan can be beneficial to credit score. However, lack of an open loan does not influence utilization rating. If the OP does have an open loan at a high B/L ratio, it might affect rating.

[BrutalBodyShots]

How do you know what influences an arbitrary "rating" system provided by a CMS? 

Since they vary from CMS to CMS, are you speaking of only this CMS in question? 

[Thomas_Thumb]

Clarification of the category description (exact wording) would be helpful. The Fico report categories are not "arbitrary" regarding their make-ups although classification ratings don't translate to thresholds for scoring. 

The OP does not mention source or the specific wording for the category. Having both would add useful background info for a more targeted response. Sometimes debt types are intermingled in utilization/debt ratings, sometimes not. Regardless, I am unaware of lack of an account type negatively impacting a utilization/debt category rating.