One major component of your credit score is your credit utilization, which is the percentage of
your overall available credit limit that you happen to be using right now.
You just lowered
your overall available credit limit.
Having a balance that represents 35 percent or more of
your overall available credit limit on each card will actually hurt you, even if you make all of your payments on time and consistently pay more than the minimum due.
Not exact matches
Because instead of
limiting the
overall availability of
credit like it did in the past, the Fed now
limits the
credit available to other prospective borrowers by grabbing more for itself, which it then passes on to the U.S. Treasury and to housing agencies whose securities it purchases.
With that in mind, you should check to see what
credit is
available in your name, then see how your
credit card debt and
limit factor into your
overall ratio.
Utilization ratio is the proportion of your
overall credit limit to your
available credit, and it is an important factor in your
credit score and history.
If you wish to know your
overall credit utilization, repeat the process while summing all your
available balances and dividing them by the sum of all your
credit limits.
Since your utilization is based on how much you owe on your cards in relation to your
credit limits, having more
available credit means a lower utilization rate — and thus, a higher score — as long as you're not carrying a higher
overall balance along with it.
For those who are wallowing in low -
credit limit limbo, the best way to improve your
available credit is to improve your
overall creditworthiness.
Having a portion of your
overall available credit shut down can also ding your
credit, since that can knock your debt - to -
credit -
limit ratio — another factor in
credit scoring — out of whack.