http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Negotiating-of-cards-with-balance-when-dealing-with-Charge-Open/m-p/1699276#M67336 <p>Util matters, but util is not all. Yes, if the Gold is &gt;0% and the Freedom is 0%, your FICO util is 0%. Still, your score will be impacted, if the Gold balance is something like $10,000. But it beats the other way around!<br><br></p> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:46:16 GMT my-own-fico 2012-11-14T05:46:16Z http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Negotiating-of-cards-with-balance-when-dealing-with-Charge-Open/m-p/1699202#M67335 <p>Hi all,</p><p> </p><p>First post!</p><p> </p><p>To start, this site has been invaluable to me and I am very thankful to everyone who has indirectly helped me via sharing their knowledge. Thanks a lot!</p><p> </p><p>With that being said, I have a question that I have not yet been able to find the answer to. I have read numerous accounts of people seeing a slight increase in their credit scores when only carrying a balance on one credit card, while leaving the others at 0% at the time of reporting. However, how does one properly apply this methodology when juggling credit cards <em>and</em> charge cards? As I understand it, the credit bureaus do not calculate open acount (charge) balances in the overall reported utilization %. I realize there are some exceptions such as the TU98, but in general this seems to be the consensus. So, does this mean that if you have a charge card in your credit mix then you are naturally excluded from using this approach?</p><p> </p><p>In my case, I have one credit card (Freedom) and one charge card (AEX Gold). If I were to carry a 1-9% balance on the Freedom and a 0% balance on the Gold, then I'm assuming that all would be well. Yet, if I carried a 1-9% balance on the Gold and a 0% balance on the Freedom, wouldn't my overall utilization % be reported as 0% due to the nature of open account reporting?</p><p> </p><p>Any thoughts?</p><p> </p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Michael</p> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:05:01 GMT http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Negotiating-of-cards-with-balance-when-dealing-with-Charge-Open/m-p/1699202#M67335 ficope 2012-11-14T05:05:01Z http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Negotiating-of-cards-with-balance-when-dealing-with-Charge-Open/m-p/1699276#M67336 <p>Util matters, but util is not all. Yes, if the Gold is &gt;0% and the Freedom is 0%, your FICO util is 0%. Still, your score will be impacted, if the Gold balance is something like $10,000. But it beats the other way around!<br><br></p> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:46:16 GMT http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Negotiating-of-cards-with-balance-when-dealing-with-Charge-Open/m-p/1699276#M67336 my-own-fico 2012-11-14T05:46:16Z