Best ratio of balance for multiple cards?

[epicureanism]

I hear there is another saying that keeping one at 9% and all other 0% would be best. How does this compare to keeping all at 9%? 

Thanks. 

[awdsmama]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I believe what I have read on here is to keep half of your cards reporting a zero balance and the other half under 9%.  And of course you can rotate which cards report a balance vs 0. 

[jsickz32]

I only let one card report with 1% all other 0.

[distantarray]

2% of total credit limit on one card, and 0% on all the rest. Only thing that sucks is I have over 100k i don't want to pay the interest on 2k lol

[NJTurnpike]

I wonder if its possible to time it just right so that it reports the balance, but you pay it off before the interest is applied.

[toful]

After your statement closes for the period, pay it off immediately. It'll still report and you won't get charged interest.

[SnackTrader]

People!

This thread has taken a drastic turn into misinformation.  So - FICO scoring, according to the experimentation completed by the members of this forum and elsewhere (I am one of those guilty of experimenting), is generally maximized when less than two but more than zero revolving accounts report a balance.  And, the best ratio of utilization generally comes from between 1-9% of your available credit on that individual card.  Many people have seen scores dip when multiple cards report a balance, when no cards report a balance, and when the reported balance exceeds 9% of the available credit.  The exact percentage will likely vary person to person, but I have always kept 1 or 2% utilization when I am looking to app.

That being said, you don't have to always maximize score as FICO scoring forgets utilization once the next month's balance reports.  So I let everything report normally in all months except those in which I am applying for a new card/loan.

Also -CARRYING A BALANCE IS NOT THE SAME AS REPORTING A BALANCE.  Balances typically report to the credit bureaus on the statement cut date.  There are some exceptions to that, so search these forums or check your personal credit report (www.annualcreditreport.com) to see which day's balance is being reported to the bureaus.  You need to pay your balance down before that date to have that reported to the bureaus.  Once that reports, feel free to pay that down to $0 to avoid interest charges.  THERE IS NO NEED TO PAY INTEREST TO MAXIMIZE FICO SCORING based on anything I have ever read on the subject.  No one has yet to correct me.

These links of past utilization threads should help:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/my-cc-debt-how-much-should-i-pay-off-to-keep-my-util-at...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/To-Pay-or-Not-to-Pay-that-is-the-Question/m-p/1827489#M...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/1-credit-card-usage-versus-0/m-p/1857307#M516661snac

Keep searching the forums if you need more information.  There's always a chance someone else has asked your question before you.