Debt-To-Limit Ratio

  

Every credit card has a limit. Most of us grok this fact all too well, as we clumsily fumble through pocket change to pay for a convenience store hot dog a week after coming home from that Bermuda vacation. Others of us have never sniffed the limit on our special-issue jet-black card that came special delivery in a gold-trimmed velvet box. Now that we think of it, those cards might not have limits. But take our word for it, most cards have limits. (You can't buy a country with the jet-black card...we think.)

The relationship between the amount of money you've spent on the card and its spending limit provides the debt-to-limit ratio. Basically, it answers the question "how much of your borrowing capacity have you used?"

Credit tracking companies use this number to figure out your credit score. If you're maxed out on your credit limits, you're seen as a bigger credit risk and your score will go down.

This relationship leads to a situation that sometimes confuses consumers: it's better for your credit score to have a lot of credit cards that you don't use, rather than to close those cards permanently. Having those unused cards increases your overall limit, making your debt-to-limit ratio lower.

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finance a la shmoop what is the debt to equity ratio? well simply put this ratio

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answers the question who owns the company like if the debt to equity ratio

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is high like there's tons of debt and very little equity well, then

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essentially the bank or whoever the lenders are owned the company or at [Assets transfer to bank]

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least the lion's share of the assets comprising it the opposite is true as

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well of course and you can imagine a well-heeled company with tons of cash

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and other assets like land and oil wells and Technology IP and no debt well they

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could have a debt to equity ratio of zero so why do you even track this kind

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of ratio well when companies are young they tend to not have tons of equity and

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over time as they grow and get good at whatever it is they do they will [Clock rapidly ticks forward]

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accumulate valuable assets like cash which are tracked as equity or

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shareholders equity on the balance sheet that lives right here think about it if [Balance sheet appears]

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this side is assets and this side is liabilities well if you're subtracting

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liabilities from assets and you still have a lot of assets left over that's a

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good thing and that line is tracked right here in the shareholders equity [Shareholders equity highlighted on balance sheet]

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line ..........

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you have a company with two billion dollars in debt at 5% interest costing a

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hundred million bucks a year to rent if the company's shareholders equity is

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just 50 million dollars well, the company is essentially owned

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predominantly by its debt holders or lenders should something go wrong even a [A bank vault full of money]

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little bit wrong well the company will go bankrupt the debt holders would own all

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that equity and well spin this around and if the company's equity comprises 10

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billion dollars of cash and a bunch of other assets for a total of 20 billion

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of equity well then you can imagine the debt to equity ratio of just 10% that's

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