All Cards 0% but one <9% Method

[Anonymous]

I can attest to the inquiry thing not being true.  I have 8 inquiries and my newest is now 8 months old and I haven't seen a 50 point increase.  Lol

[jamie123]

I have 7 open and active credit cards and this is how the scoring works for me:

I like to use all my credit cards gently each month letting balances report on all the cards and then paying them all in full several days before the due date. I think most credit card companies like to be able to report a balance on a card that has been used that month. IMHO it builds a good relationship with the lenders this way but I may be wrong. I do know that if your balance is $0 on a Walmart card, Walmart won't create a new statement for the next month and it is like that month doesn't count in their monthly aging count for CLI.

I do pay a price in points for doing this though but it isn't important unless I plan on apping in the near future. When I plan on apping in the next month, I take all my cards to $0 except one that I let report a balance of less than 9% of its CL. As each card reports a balance of $0 my scores go up 3 to 4 points for each card.

After I'm done apping and I let all the cards start reporting a balance again, I will lose 3 to 4 points for every card that reports more than $0. I have lost 4 points for a reported balance of $2.99 on one card. So yes, you do need to get the balance all the way down to $0.

[Anonymous]

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@jamie123 wrote:

I have 7 open and active credit cards and this is how the scoring works for me:

I like to use all my credit cards gently each month letting balances report on all the cards and then paying them all in full several days before the due date. I think most credit card companies like to be able to report a balance on a card that has been used that month. IMHO it builds a good relationship with the lenders this way but I may be wrong. I do know that if your balance is $0 on a Walmart card, Walmart won't create a new statement for the next month and it is like that month doesn't count in their monthly aging count for CLI.

I do pay a price in points for doing this though but it isn't important unless I plan on apping in the near future. When I plan on apping in the next month, I take all my cards to $0 except one that I let report a balance of less than 9% of its CL. As each card reports a balance of $0 my scores go up 3 to 4 points for each card.

After I'm done apping and I let all the cards start reporting a balance again, I will lose 3 to 4 points for every card that reports more than $0. I have lost 4 points for a reported balance of $2.99 on one card. So yes, you do need to get the balance all the way down to $0.

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There must be some other factors at work though.  I never lose points for letting any of these cards report a balance.  In the last three months for instance, I have seen my score go from 712 to 726.  I go up each month, not down.  However, what I've been hearing is that the quicker way up is the method of letting one card report <9% and the others 0%.  I have been doing the less than 10% on each card (usually 5-6 cards) monthly for the last year or so.  I have never seen a drop that wasn't due to an inquiry or new line.  So this is going to be the definitive, either it goes up a lot or just as much as I've already been experiencing.

[bada_bing]

I have 5 cards reporting in my CR, my Ink Cash doesn't report.

I lose 2-4 points for each card that reports a balance above 1 card reporting a balance.

None of my cards ever report more than 9% utilization, my spending isn't that high.

I always PIF, usually after statement cuts unless I'm tweaking my score.

If all cards report zero%, I lose about 20 points verses 1 card reporting a balance.

In other words, my score is a few points worse if I report 0% utilization verses reporting a balance on all cards.

My optimum is one card reporting.

All of the above causes a me little confusion on why it should be, because it seems counter intuitive that

having no balances is worse, score wise, than balances on every card. But I've tweaked my utilization for

enough months to be quite sure that is how it works for my profile. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

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@bada_bing wrote:

I have 5 cards reporting in my CR, my Ink Cash doesn't report.

I lose 2-4 points for each card that reports a balance above 1 card reporting a balance.

None of my cards ever report more than 9% utilization, my spending isn't that high.

I always PIF, usually after statement cuts unless I'm tweaking my score.

If all cards report zero%, I lose about 20 points verses 1 card reporting a balance.

In other words, my score is a few points worse if I report 0% utilization verses reporting a balance on all cards.

My optimum is one card reporting.

All of the above causes a me little confusion on why it should be, because it seems counter intuitive that

having no balances is worse, score wise, than balances on every card. But I've tweaked my utilization for

enough months to be quite sure that is how it works for my profile. YMMV.

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Essentially my credit scores follow your findings. If I keep my utilization at about 2% and one to three cards reporting my score is at max for AAoA and oldest account.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've usually just let them all report as is and my overall utilization hasn't ever gone above 7%.  Do you guys do this once in a while?  Had it helped?  I'm just looking to try a new method.  It is kind of annoying to achieve the whole thing but if it works I'll give it a try.

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I don't bother with it as I'm around 800 with 12% and most of them reporting balances.  You can test and compare your scores before and after if you want to determine the impact.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm curious to know what the approximate score improvement would be by only letting one card report a <9% balance, as opposed to letting more than one card report a small/trivial balance. 

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You'd have to test and see.  Impact is not identical for everyone -- varies with credit profile.

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@bada_bing wrote:

All of the above causes a me little confusion on why it should be, because it seems counter intuitive that

having no balances is worse, score wise, than balances on every card.

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Having all zeroes indicates no usage and that's why there's a ding.  Don't rely on intuition.  Stick with the documented information.  This is why one balance is recommended for optimal scoring and not zero balances.

[Anonymous]

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@bada_bing wrote:

I have 5 cards reporting in my CR, my Ink Cash doesn't report.

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Whaaa??

Your Ink Cash doesn't report because it's new and hasn't shown up yet?  Or is that just some quirky thing that Chase does with that card specifically.  I just opened an Ink Cash.  Gonna be a real bummer if it doesn't report because it's my largest CL

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bada_bing wrote:

I have 5 cards reporting in my CR, my Ink Cash doesn't report.

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Whaaa??

Your Ink Cash doesn't report because it's new and hasn't shown up yet?  Or is that just some quirky thing that Chase does with that card specifically.  I just opened an Ink Cash.  Gonna be a real bummer if it doesn't report because it's my largest CL

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Chase Business Cards do not report to the credit bureaus. Need to get a Cap1 Business Card they do report.

[Anonymous]

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@ArmyVietVet wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bada_bing wrote:

I have 5 cards reporting in my CR, my Ink Cash doesn't report.

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Whaaa??

Your Ink Cash doesn't report because it's new and hasn't shown up yet?  Or is that just some quirky thing that Chase does with that card specifically.  I just opened an Ink Cash.  Gonna be a real bummer if it doesn't report because it's my largest CL

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Chase Business Cards do not report to the credit bureaus. Need to get a Cap1 Business Card they do report.

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That's a trip.  Does this mean that my business credit isn't going to grow since Chase won't be reporting it's usage?

[masscredit]

I accidently paid to much on the one card that was going to be reporting this month. I paid two bills after I realized that but those charges didn't post until the day after my statement cut. This will be the first month that I've had all cards reporting a zero balance. Time to see what happens to my score. Another card will be closing in a few days o that one is going to report a small balance (about 1% of the CL) so I'll get those points back.