Advise regarding Utilization needed

[TeeandDee]

Seeking the wonderful credit gurus in this forum. What's the most that should br spent on the credit limits below to have the best utilizations report :

$1,500
$1,000
$500

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[FrugalRican]

Less than 9% on one of them.

[pizzadude]

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@FrugalRican wrote:

Less than 9% on one of them.

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+1.  Pick one of the cards and let a very small balance report on it, let the other two cards report zero balances.

[andre181]

Less than 9% seems to be the concensus here, but everybody's reports are different and will have different things that will effect the scores.

For me, my scores do not drop until I'm over 30%. You just have to play around with it and see what happens.

And remember, for scoring purposes, you don't have to keep your utilization at its perfect point all the time. Just get it down to its optimal point before applying for new credit.

[TeeandDee]

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@andre181 wrote:

Less than 9% seems to be the concensus here, but everybody's reports are different and will have different things that will effect the scores.

For me, my scores do not drop until I'm over 30%. You just have to play around with it and see what happens.

And remember, for scoring purposes, you don't have to keep your utilization at its perfect point all the time. Just get it down to its optimal point before applying for new credit.

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Great advise...thanks so much everyone!!!   Like andre181, my credit score does not seem to be affected until I get over 30% and then it takes a hit.  I was not really aware of paying before the biling cycle ends or before due date method until coming to these forums.  So now I always pay down (when necessary) before my billing cycle ends and my statement cuts.  So far it's been working in the past, and I'm hoping that adding these two new cards will further improve my utilization when they start reporting.

[Anonymous]

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@TeeandDee wrote:
Seeking the wonderful credit gurus in this forum. What's the most that should br spent on the credit limits below to have the best utilizations report :

$1,500
$1,000
$500

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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Actually for optimal scoring you will need to let less than $150 report on your CR on the Card that has the $1500 limit. The other 2 need to report a $0 bal.

The reason for this is Fico takes into account the total number of revolving TLs you have and score you negatively if you are using more than 50% of the TLs. In your case you have a total of 3 revolving TLs if 1 TL reports a bal and the other 2 do not you would be using 33% of your revolving TLs. However, if all three lines show activity (even with <9%utl reporting) you would be using 100% of your revolvers and may see a ding in score.

If your not looking to optimize your score... use your cards however you like. If your looking to app. I would suggest having the smaller TL's report a 0 bal and make sure the larger line reports less than $150.