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Lenders look at this ratio almost as closely as your score. See where you stand.
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Your ratio will calculate automatically as you type.
For general educational purposes only. Lenders may calculate DTI differently. This is not a guarantee of approval.
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Closing an old credit card helps your score.
Closing a card can raise your utilization and shorten your average account age — both of which can lower your score. Keeping old accounts open (and unused) usually helps more than closing them.
Checking your own credit hurts your score.
A self check is a soft inquiry and never affects your score. Only hard inquiries from lenders reviewing a new application can cause a small, temporary dip.
Carrying a balance improves your score.
Utilization is a factor, but carrying debt month to month isn't required to build credit. Paying in full each cycle keeps utilization low and avoids interest entirely.
Paying off a collection removes it from your report.
A paid collection is marked as paid, but it can still stay on your report for up to seven years. What matters most is disputing anything inaccurate and building positive history around it.
You only have one credit score.
You have many scores — different bureaus and different scoring models (FICO vs. VantageScore) can all produce different numbers for the exact same file.
Income affects your credit score.
Credit scores are built from your credit file, not your income. Income matters to a lender's approval decision, but it isn't a factor in the score itself.
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