What is credit utilization?
Credit utilization is the share of your available revolving credit that you are using. You find it by dividing your card balance by your credit limit: a $1,500 balance on a $5,000 limit is 30%.
Action level Worth checking
- Why you are seeing it
- It comes up when people talk about credit reports and credit scores.
- Why it matters
- It is the share of your available revolving credit that you are using, and scoring models commonly consider it along with many other things.
- What should I do?
- Divide a card balance by its limit and multiply by 100 to see your own figure.
- Remember that models differ in how they weigh it, so no single percentage is a rule.
- A common misunderstanding
- No single percentage is a rule, and this page cannot say what any percentage will do to a score.
Work out your ratio
Enter a balance and a limit. Add a second card if you like. Nothing you type leaves this page.
30.00% of your available credit is in use.
- Total balance
- $1,500.00
- Total credit limit
- $5,000.00
- Credit not in use
- $3,500.00
- This is the arithmetic ratio only: balance divided by limit. Credit scoring models differ, may also look at each card on its own, and weigh many other things, so one number does not describe how any model sees you.
An estimate for learning, under the assumptions shown. Not financial advice, a quote or an offer.
How it is worked out
Divide the balance by the limit and multiply by 100. With more than one card, one common way is to add all the balances and divide by all the limits. Some scoring models also look at each card by itself.
A simple example
Two cards
Card 1: $1,500 of a $5,000 limit is 30.00%.
Card 2: $200 of a $1,000 limit is 20.00%.
Together: $1,700 of $6,000 is 28.33%.
Why it matters, and what it does not tell you
Credit reports list balances and limits, and scoring models commonly consider how much of your available credit is in use, along with many other things. Models differ in how they weigh it, so no single percentage is a rule, and this page cannot say what any percentage will do to a score.
- It does not show whether you pay on time, how long you have had credit, or what kinds of credit you have.
- The balance a card company reports is often the one on the statement date, which can differ from what you owe after you pay.
- This is arithmetic for learning. It is not credit advice, and OneClickAnswers is not a lender or a credit bureau.