 TITLE: How to Calculate Credit Card Utilization CONTENT: Calculating Your Credit Utilization Ratio\n-----------------------------------------\nYou can calculate your credit utilization ratio for each of your credit cards, and your total utilization ratio for all your credit cards—and you should, because credit scoring models take both of these calculations into account when determining your credit scores.\nCredit utilization ratios depend on the numbers in your credit report, not your current account balances. So the first step is to review your credit report. You can get a free Experian credit report every 30 days, or a free report from each of the credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com.\nOnce you have your credit report, divide each credit card's balance by the card's credit limit. For example, if a card's balance is $2,500 and the credit limit is $5,000, then the result is 0.5. Multiply by 100 to see the result as a percentage—50%. That is your credit utilization ratio for that card.\nIf you have multiple credit cards, add up all their balances and divide that total by the sum of the cards' credit limits. Perhaps you have three cards with balances of $500, $1,500 and $0, and their credit limits are $3,000, $5,000 and $2,000. The total balance ($2,000) divided by the total credit limit ($10,000) gives you an overall utilization rate of 0.2, or 20%.\nYour utilization ratio will change as your credit card issuers send updates to the credit bureaus. Generally, this happens around the end of your statement period, which is why you can pay your credit card bill in full each month and still have a high utilization rate that hurts your credit scores. END