What is credit utilisation?
Your credit use, or credit utilisation, is how much of your available credit you’re using across your credit accounts, shown as a percentage. For example, if you have a credit limit of R10,000 and you’ve used R3,000, your credit utilisation is 30%.
Credit utilisation is one of the things that can affect your credit score. Using a high amount of your available credit can suggest that you rely heavily on credit.
How does this affect your score?
High credit utilisation can affect your credit score and may reduce your chances of being accepted for new credit. As a general guide, try to keep your credit utilisation below 30% of your available credit limit.
You should also aim to make repayments on time and, where possible, pay off your balance in full each month.
What can you do next?
To manage your credit utilisation, you can:
- keep your credit use below 30% of your available credit limit
- pay down your outstanding debt
- avoid using most or all of your available credit
- make more than one payment during the month, if this helps keep your balance lower
- consider moving expensive debt to a lower-rate option, if one is available and right for you