How many credit cards?

[LadyInTheRed]

I don't think so, another website I frequent recommends 30% and that's what worked for me.

What website is that?

[justbroke]

If it's just a Website, I would never trust it. I would trust the MyFICO Website by Fair Isaac... patent owners of the FICO score. They are very specific that for high achievers (over 800) everything over even 10% is negative.

How your score varies throughout time can change just because of aging alone. It may not be an affect of your utilization.

[CCsAreEvil]

All the models I've seen, 1-9% util is correct to be the best ratio (if you are excluding all other factors!). I was talking with a guy that deals with this FICO garbage for a living.. he said accounts are considered "overextended" when you reach over 35% of the CL.. so you really dont want to go over 29% if you don't have to.

For me, I've noticed a few interesting things.. my "personal experience" thresholds for FICO score changes:

0% - slightly lower score than optimal 1-9%
1-9% optimal (best score!)
10-29% "ok".. slight less score than 0% util
30-49% even lower score
50-7x% things are starting to get very bad in scoring.. I don't recall if the end was 74% or 79%.. I would think 74%
90%+ I was in this territory before BK.. this is a very bad sign

of course, there are other factors.. but the main factors I've noticed are utilization and credit payment history. of course, there are all the other factors... AAoA, number of credit inquiries (hard pulls), auto loan(s), mortgage loans, etc.

It's NEVER worth paying something late to have that "30 days late" hit on your credit report. I don't know for sure, but if you are in this situation that you cannot pay a bill that would affect your credit, contact the company and work something out.. they are usually willing to help.. in the end, they just want their money (and of course.. "profits").