Originally Posted by
deirdre
Sure.
Utilization is on a per-account and a total sum basis.
Let's say you've got two cards, and one has a $10k limit and one has a $25k limit.
You've got a $5k charge, and put it on the $10k card. That card is now at 50% utilization, and you will lose FICO points for that -- only for the time it's high, mind you, but that can cause adverse action if it's a big enough hit. I know from personal experience that, on a clean report, you can lose over 100 points for utilization. Ouch. Fortunately, it was a temporary situation when I didn't know better.
Most banks report to the credit bureaus as the statements cut, but not all do (HSBC reports at the end of the month).
If you know when that posts, then you can make sure that you've paid down your balance before the balance gets reported and thus avoid losing the FICO points.
For most people most of the time, you don't need to know this unless you're suddenly using credit or applying for credit.
Thanks. No, I do understand that. I'm kind of interested in ways to nudge the system in the opposite direction. I have reasonably generous credit on most of my cards, and I believe my score kind of suffers from under-utilization (it's normally within 1-3%). So I was wondering if it would work the other way around - if I beef up spending on one of my lower-limit card up to perhaps 25% by the time of posting - would that be enough to up my score? That trick would be especially useful after the App-o-Rama when your score takes a nosedive.
I guess there is only one way to find out
