Fwiw, here’s an insight on how it works for people who push the envelope
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/credit-cards-credit-scores/
The banker who informed me I was preapproved for their card should have told me I would likely have to supply copies of our tax records in order for me to be issued the card. She approached me, not the other way around. She knew I was unemployed, because I flat out told her I was. She had also pulled up all my personal information, including my FICO score, and knew of the exact nature of my transactions with them. She made it sound like applying was a mere formality, and that I would most certainly be issued a card. After the embarrassment of being turned down because I wouldn’t supply additional information, I later told this young lady to warn future applicants that they would most likely have to disclose further financial information, because it was irksome to have your bank virtually beg you to apply for their card, only to have them turn you down as if you were that approached them, hat in hand.
Forget that bank. Cc are a dime a dozen. You can report your family income in the online application and you score should give you a good option. Look at the rewards as opposed to the promotional rate since you are paying in full every month.
@twoinanddone, thanks for your comments, always good to have input that reinforces our thinking! My S would have to eventually cancel this high balance card because he WILL need that money for down payment and other related expenses when he is ready to buy his own little place. So, better now than later (he will need a good FICO score for mortgage application).
@ChicagoBear, we won’t cancel two cards, it is always good to have 2 cards.
@AttorneyMother, thanks for the links.
Hipeful820 , as odd as it seems the fact that he never carries a balance is actually hurting his score. Rumor has it that allowing two of his cards reporting 0% utilization, and one of them reporting 9% is the optimum mix to help his score. Also, he should have three revolving accounts so if he can product change the account that requires a high balance, rather than cancel it that would be a better choice. Especially if they will keep his “date opened” reporting based on the first card.
The scores are a bit of a mystery, even with the % breakdowns that they give you. And as others have said, the different scores all use a slightly different model. And of course, the “Fako” scores you can get from places like credit karma or credit.com aren’t actually the same as the true report your potential lenders would get from FICO.
Cancel the card that is holding 50,000 dollar hostage. He doesn’t need it and it won’t hurt his credit score much. If concerned about utilization per cent he can ask his other cards to raise limits. The drop is likely temporary if he recently applied for credit, It will go back up.
Kudo’s if he has 50,000 saved. I would suggest he take a finance course or get some books on investing, motley fool has some good very beginner investing books, join an investment club. I’m betting even a higher yield account is below the inflation rate.
When applying for credit, it is more than just your FICO score. It is directly tied to your income. Creditors look very carefully at your debt/income ratio. When applying for mortgage, banks do not want to see more than 30-35% debt/income ratio. It is how they figure out how much mortgage you could afford. It is no different than when you want to apply for other credits. Little things I picked up when doing asset/mortgage securitization. Of course I’ve had personal experience when applying for various credits.
We do pay our credit cards off on time and in full. It was a weird combination of circumstances, I guess, because we had just charged our annual home/auto insurance payment (we are in Michigan, so auto insurance is EXPENSIVE). She was worried something like that might have an affect on her credit score in the future, from the standpoint of possibly having an extra $6k or so on a credit card at the time she applies for a mortgage. Thanks for the explanations and suggestions (CC is always helpful!).
kelsmom - if/when your D applies for mortgage she could write an explanation to the bank it is your card and your obligation. I recently had to write close to 10 statements to my bank when refinancing. They scrutinized every regular deposits and payments. They also asked me to explain a lot of things on my credit report.
I cleaned up(closed) many retail cards I no longer used (I used to open one to get 5 or 10% discount).
That is all true but the question posed by the OP was about FICO scores and not about obtaining a loan.
It is obvious that lending and especially secured lending is looking at way more than a FICO score. It is extremely easy to understand that income vs debt will play a huge factor. It should also be extremely easy to accept that the FICO score is what it is and it is not based on one’s income, even if the approval of a credit card might.
Different animals that happen to fall in a similar category.
Where does that come from? Care to explain?
@xiggi, OP here, what Python20 said “Cancel the card that is holding $50k hostage” is exactly how we feel, that particular card has a $70 annual fee, or fee waived if one maintains a $50k balance in combined checking, savings and money market account. He does not want to pay $70 or keep the $50k balance earning 0.02% interest. Until he is ready to buy his place, we will just park the money in a higher yield money market/saving rate of 1% at another bank, not a lot of money but still better than 0.02%.
@Python20, if you can convince my S (an English teacher) to take up a finance course or read up on investing, I will be forever indebted to you!! It is for his own good, but I am told I am "nagging’ too much. I may have a little better chance with my 19 year old D, though she told me accounting (in high school) and Economic (freshman year college) are boring! 
.
Gotcha!
@Hopeful820 , once your S has decided what to do about his $70-fee credit card, he might take an interest in reading this information about “gardening your credit”:
http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/GardeningYourCredit.aspx
Also, perhaps you can interest him in reading this publication by William Bernstein targeted at millennials:
http://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
Maybe its relative brevity and condensed messages will eventually get through.
And taking intro Accounting and Economics classes only go so far (maybe not at all) in establishing financial literacy. Likewise, financial literacy is not predicated on being in the financial business. So, if you can get your D to read the same thing, it’ll be a long way towards your goal.
You are doing a good turn by encouraging your children.
^^ It will not be part of an econ-accounting program! On the other hand, Stanford did offer a course that helped the students open their eyes a bit about personal financial management. Probably not with the greatest of success as students are caught between living in 2015 and receiving … advice from the past century. 
Why do people care about their FICO scores?
Because that score determines whether you will get the loan or credit card you want and how good an interest rate you’ll get!
^^^Exactly!!! Maybe xiggi likes having high scores just for the sake of it.
^^ not sure why you needed to add that quip!