Calculator
Credit Utilization Calculator
Find out your credit utilization rate and what it means for your credit score.
Your utilization rate
0%
Excellent
Total balance$0
Total credit limit$0
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What does this mean?
Credit utilization is the percentage of your available credit that you are using. It accounts for 30% of your FICO score — the second largest factor. Keeping your utilization below 30% is good. Below 10% is ideal for the best scores.
Utilization rate guide
| Utilization rate | Score impact | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10% | Excellent | Best possible impact on your score. Aim here. |
| 11–30% | Good | Acceptable range. Minor score impact. |
| 31–50% | Fair | Starting to hurt your score. Pay down balances. |
| 51–75% | Poor | Significant negative impact on your credit score. |
| 76–100% | Very poor | Major negative impact. Lenders see this as risky behavior. |
How to lower your credit utilization
- Pay down balances before your statement closes. Your issuer reports your balance to the bureaus on your statement closing date — not your payment due date. Paying before the statement closes lowers the reported utilization.
- Request a credit limit increase. More available credit with the same balance = lower utilization. Most issuers review limit increase requests after 6-12 months of on-time payments.
- Open a new credit card. Adding a new card increases your total available credit. Only do this if you can get approved without multiple hard inquiries.
- Keep old accounts open. Closing a card removes its limit from your total available credit, which raises your utilization ratio.
- Make multiple payments per month. If you carry a balance, making two or three payments per month instead of one keeps your running balance lower throughout the month.