8. Maxing Out One Credit Card Even If Others Are Barely Used
Many people believe their credit situation is healthy as long as they are not using all their available credit. For example, someone may have three or four credit cards and only one of them is close to the limit. Because the other cards have low or zero balances, they assume everything is fine. Unfortunately, credit scoring systems don’t see it that way.
Credit scores look at both overall credit usage and usage on each individual card. This means that even if your total credit utilization seems reasonable, having one card that is nearly maxed out can still hurt your score. A card that is consistently close to its limit suggests financial pressure and poor balance management, even if the rest of your accounts look good.
Another issue is how lenders interpret this behavior. A maxed-out card may signal that you rely heavily on that credit line, possibly because your income is not enough to cover expenses. This makes lenders nervous, because people who rely heavily on one card are statistically more likely to miss payments in the future.
High balances on a single card also create a financial trap. Interest builds faster, minimum payments increase, and it becomes harder to reduce the balance. As months go by, the card stays near its limit, keeping your utilization high and your credit score low.
The good news is that this problem is often easier to fix than people think. Paying down one heavily used card can lead to quick improvements. Spreading spending more evenly across cards, asking for a credit limit increase, or making extra payments during the month can all help lower individual card utilization.
In short, it’s not just how much credit you use overall that matters. How you use each card plays a big role in how lenders judge your credit behavior.
