May 23, 2014 | By Greg Fisher

According to Fair Isaac, the FICO score company: "There's no ideal utilization to shoot for, because as with most things, it depends on everything else on your report. But as a general rule, you want to try to keep your utilization on any one card, and across all of your credit cards, below 50% to avoid the risk of hurting your FICO score."

On the other hand, an apparently rogue FICO spokesman is found saying, "I think that if people stay somewhere between 10 and 20 percent range, that's a good place to be."

On the third hand, yesterday, a Chicago Tribune item stated, "Most experts, for example, recommend that you charge no more than 25 percent of the maximum limit on a credit card."*

On the fourth hand (unfortunately) the 30 percent solution is a popular notion. Often bolstered with the word experts, it is, apparently, not from the 25-percent experts mentioned by the Chicago news organization.

And, contrary to the Chicago Tribune's false information, employers do not use credit scores.

@CarolynBigda Name #2Experts. http://t.co/TLNONXZNF6

— Greg Fisher (@creditscoring) May 23, 2014

* Previously linked to http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sc-cons-0522-started-20140522,0,6915767.story. - Ed., 2016-08-13

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