[quote name='Iningo_Montoya']As a mortgage lender, all I can say is that the above comment about debt to income ratios is about as wrong as anything I've ever read on the internet. (and that takes some work!) It's called a debt ratio because it measures debt YOU ACTUALLY HAVE, not some fictional number that might happen 4 years down the road. Sorry to take you to task about that, but I hate when misinformation gets spread about what I do all day, every day.
The comment about keeping balances 50% or lower is pretty much correct. There are two tiers that you want to try and stay under in your revolving credit on each individual account as well as your total revolving credit available. It's 30% and 50% respectively. Obviously, it is looked at better to be below 30%. It's also not a good thing to close out accounts you aren't using, as I've seen mentioned above.
An example that I use when I teach is let's say you have 5 cards with a $2000 limit for each of them. One of the accounts you have is maxed at the full $2000. The rest have zero balances. The credit bureau looks at each individual account to see if it's below 30%, below 50%, or above 50%. In this case, you'll get dinged for the one account at $2k, but the other 4 are under 30% which is good. The credit bureau then looks at your total revolving credit available and sees you are using 2k out of 10k that is available to you. (20%, below the 30% tier, and a good thing) This shows responsible borrowing. It shows you have access to 10k worth of credit but CHOOSE TO USE only 2k. You have self discipline and as such are a lower credit risk.
Now let's say the person in this example hears the incorrect assumption from someone claiming that you should close any of the accounts you aren't using. They take this advice to heart and close the 4 cards with 2k limits and zero balances. This is a good thing, right? WRONG! You went from having 10k worth of credit available to having 2k and that 2k is used to the hilt. You now look like a credit junkie. From a lender's perspective, it now looks like if you have it available to you, you will use it to the maximum. You are the definition of a credit risk.
This is just one part that goes into your total credit scores(revolving usage), but something that I feel people should realize how it works. And I apologize for taking this thread way off course![/quote]
