I have 3 CCs, 1 BoA and 2 Amex. BoA has $6500 limit, Amex1 has $8500 limit and Amex2 has $2500. BoA card is completely paid off Amex1 has $2500 on it Amex2 has $1000 on it. I'm trying to understand utilization. How much of each card should I be using monthly to keep in a utilization range that will increase my score?
You're fine. Pay them off now if you can. We've since no substantive data which supports that carrying a balance increases scores over that of zero balances.
FICO's utilization scoring is a bit tricky, per my tracking of it, there's a "bit more" to it than published in their formula. In your case, you have a total of $17,500.00 available CC credit. You are "utilizing" $3,500.00, so...$3,500.00/$17,500.00= 20% overall. Individually your ratios are: BoA: 0% Amex1: 29% Amex2: 40% FICO looks at both overall utilization (20% in your case), and individual card ratios. Although FICO does not state that they "track" your rolling utilization, I beleive they do. 20% utilization is a very good ratio, lowering your Amex2 balance to 30% would probably help your score. BTW, 20% rate seems to be a "cutoff", if you get below that 20% level, you should see an increase in your score also.
