0% utilization bad??

[Josh2942]

I have attained $117,000 in unsecured credit. my utilization is 3% at the moment at $3,300. I had a cash advance on my Baclay Arrival card that had a 10.3k limit. Now i just paid it off in total and my utilization went down to 0%. Credit Karma lowered my score but myfico score is at 761. Since I compulsively pay my credit cards, will this hurt my score? Just some background, I have a Chase Auto lease that auto pays every month so far 10 months, sallie mae student loan auto pay every month, signature loan every month auto pay. No missed payments no lates. Im ready to chop 7k off in useless cards aswell. target, occu, american eagle, and amazon corporate line

[kdm31091]

If none of your cards report any balance, and you're at zero across the board, you will get dinged on your score for not using your accounts.

You want to let one card report with a 1-9% balance for the ideal scoring situation for utilization. (The rest can be zero)

[Josh2942]

I am using them though, heavily actually. 5 chase cards in rotation. Accoridng to credit karma even if I dont have a balance my report says how much I paid that month.

[SMDLiquid]

My Experian fico score dropped 15 points because all my cards reported 0% credit usage. Check my credit report and that was the only change no negatives

[kdm31091]

Don't rely on what CK tells you.

It doesn't matter if you are using them heavily - if you are PIF before the statement and the balance reporting is zero, across all cards, you'll get dinged. It doesn't matter how much you used before that point. It matters what reports to the bureaus at the statement/reporting date.

[Josh2942]

guess ill just let one report

[lhcole77]

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@Josh2942 wrote:

I am using them though, heavily actually. 5 chase cards in rotation. Accoridng to credit karma even if I dont have a balance my report says how much I paid that month.

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Good point, though. No matter when you pay the payment does get reported. So if you pay most before statement cuts you'll still get points  for "payment history" portion of FICO score. But, as others have said, if all of your cards report 0 balances then you'll get dinged, missing out on points in "utlization " section.

[lhcole77]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Don't rely on what CK tells you.

It doesn't matter if you are using them heavily - if you are PIF before the statement and the balance reporting is zero, across all cards, you'll get dinged. It doesn't matter how much you used before that point. It matters what reports to the bureaus at the statement/reporting date.

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This statement is overused IMO. 

CK does offer valuable information. In OP's case it was valuable for him to see payments reported during the month to CRAs even though he PIF before statement cut.

CK scores are obviously different than FICO scores, but with their improved functionality and including TU reports and EQ reports, I'd say there's some good stuff to be had here. 

[kdm31091]

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@lhcole77 wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Don't rely on what CK tells you.

It doesn't matter if you are using them heavily - if you are PIF before the statement and the balance reporting is zero, across all cards, you'll get dinged. It doesn't matter how much you used before that point. It matters what reports to the bureaus at the statement/reporting date.

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This statement is overused IMO. 

CK does offer valuable information. In OP's case it was valuable for him to see payments reported during the month to CRAs even though he PIF before statement cut.

CK scores are obviously different than FICO scores, but with their improved functionality and including TU reports and EQ reports, I'd say there's some good stuff to be had here. 

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It is an overused statement and I like CK for some things. I should have expanded my statement as "don't rely on what they tell you for this issue".

[Anonymous]

It's interesting because it would seem like such a good idea to have your utilization so low, but in fact it isn't. That 1-9% on one card is the best way to go.