Will raising your utilization ratio increase or decrease score?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, will raising my utilization ratio from 1% to 2% or 3 decrease my score, raise it or stay the same? I’m trying to find a good ratio for me. I want to increase to 2-3% it’s at 1 now but I’m scared my score will decrease

[rbentley]

Your scores should not change as long as you keep your UTL under 8.9%.

[Medic981]

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@rbentley wrote:

Your scores should not change as long as you keep your UTL under 8.9%.

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@rbentley is correct. Keeping your UTL < 8.9% will not change your score in itself. FICO gives your score a boost if your UTL is < 8.9%, does not penalize you if your UTL is < 30%, and penalizes you hard if your UTL > 70%. 

Just keep in mind there are many other factors that can affect your FICO scores as well.

[Anonymous]

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@AnonymousHello everyone, will raising my utilization ratio from 1% to 2% or 3 decrease my score, raise it or stay the same? I’m trying to find a good ratio for me. I want to increase to 2-3% it’s at 1 now but I’m scared my score will decrease

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Under most circumstances, the change you described would not result in a score drop. 

I'm assuming here that you're speaking of aggregate (overall) utilization.  Keep in mind that there are 2 ways to raise that.  One results in no score decrease, one does.

Rupert and Cornelius both have 3 credit cards with $1000 limits on each, or $3000 in total limits.  Both have a $30 balance on one card and $0 balances on the other 2.  Both Rupert and Cornelius are therefore at 1% utilization. 

Rupert takes his $30 balance to $90 while leaving $0 balances on his other 2 cards.  When it reports, he's now at 3% overall utilization.

Cornelius keeps his $30 balance, but also allows $30 balances to report on his other 2 cards.  He's also now at 3% overall utilization.

In this example above, Rupert's score would stay the same while Cornelius' could experience a score drop.  The reason here is that Rupert is still at 33% of cards with a balance reported, where Cornelius went to 100% of cards with a balance reported.  Again, this is with their aggregate utilization increasing the same exact amount. 

[Anonymous]

@brutalBodyshots
I have 3 cards. One capital one card $900. Discover it $2700, and police and fire $1000.
I left a balance on my capital one card of $52 and a balance of $68 on discover it card. And $0 on my police and fire card.
Will my score decrease because it reported 2 cards instead of one? My pervious utilization was 1% and a $52 balance on one card. But adding up all of my credit cards utilization with all cards is %2 right now. I’m wondering if my score will drop now.

[Anonymous]

It's very profile-specific.  The same event on my file could cause a slight score drop, where on your file it may result in no score drop at all and vice versa.  You really won't know until the change reports and you pull your score.  I'd say it's 50/50.  50% chance that your score stays exactly the same, 50% that you experience a small score drop. 

Keep in mind that any utilization-related change that results in a score change can be exactly reversed the following month.  If you bring your utilization back to the state it was at previously, your score will return to what it was previously.  For this reason, there's no reason to sweat a slight score drop if you do see one.