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How much of my credit limit am I using, and what should I pay down first?
See how an extra payment changes utilization, the share of each limit in use.
41.3%
This week: pay the card that is closest to its limit before the statement closes.
Payment beyond the minimums, split across cards by the strategy below
How the extra payment is split across cards
Band: 31% to 50%
Band: 31% to 50%
Points of your total limits, not a score change.
Every card at 10% of its limit or less
A commonly cited threshold, not a promise of a score change
A zero balance on the statement date reports 0% utilization
Issuers usually report the balance on the statement date, so a payment before that date lowers the reported figure
Written by Elizabeth Stein
With the calculator's own starting cards, a $2,500 balance on a $5,000 limit and an $800 balance on a $3,000 limit, combined utilization starts at 41.25% (a $3,300 balance against an $8,000 combined limit). Switching to the balanced strategy with a 10% target, the first card would need $2,000 to reach $500, and the second $500 to reach $300, a combined $2,500. With the default $300 extra payment, the lab pays 12% of each ($240 and $60), which leaves combined utilization at 37.5%.
Finance Quest is educational. It is not financial advice, and no calculator here knows your full situation.
With a small extra payment the balanced strategy lowers every card a little and none of them all the way. Compare the combined utilization after the payment with your target before you read the result as done. The highest-utilization and highest-balance strategies instead finish one card before starting the next, which can leave one card near its limit and another at zero.
Under 30% is the commonly cited guideline, and many people aim for 10% or less. Scoring companies do not publish exact cutoffs, and lower is generally better than higher. Utilization is recalculated every time a card's balance is reported, so it can move month to month even without a change in your spending habits.
Both. Scoring models look at your overall utilization across all cards and at each individual card's utilization. A single maxed-out card can hurt your score even if your combined utilization across every other card is low.
For credit score purposes, the card with the highest utilization percentage usually has more room to improve your score per dollar paid, since a card near its limit reports the worst ratio. For total interest cost, the highest interest rate matters more than either. Decide whether you want a lower score impact or a lower interest cost before picking a strategy.
No, it usually hurts it. Closing a card removes its limit from your total available credit, which raises your overall utilization even though your balance didn't change. Paying a card to zero and leaving it open keeps that available limit working in your favor.