Credit card utilization question

[jyml8582]

Hi all, just signed up to myFICO, hopefully their service will help me keep an eye on my financial responsibilities!

I have a few questions regarding credit card usage that I've been trying to get some answers for...hopefully I can find them here!!

Here goes...

1. Will paying off large credit card balance help improving my credit? For example: I have a credit card with credit line of 5000, if I use up 4800 but pay it off completely when the bill is due, and do it for several months, will it help my credit score or hurt it?

2. Will requesting credit line increase on multiple existing credit cards hurt my credit score?

Thank you all in advance for helping !!

[user5387]

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@jyml8582 wrote:

Hi all, just signed up to myFICO, hopefully their service will help me keep an eye on my financial responsibilities!

I have a few questions regarding credit card usage that I've been trying to get some answers for...hopefully I can find them here!!

Here goes...

1. Will paying off large credit card balance help improving my credit? For example: I have a credit card with credit line of 5000, if I use up 4800 but pay it off completely when the bill is due, and do it for several months, will it help my credit score or hurt it?

2. Will requesting credit line increase on multiple existing credit cards hurt my credit score?

Thank you all in advance for helping !!

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In general, paying off large balances will help you a lot.  But you need to pay the balances before the statement cuts, so that a low balance is reported to the credit bureaus.

Both your overall utilization, and your utilization per card, affect your score.

Requesting credit line increases may help or hurt.  If doing so significantly lowers your utilization, it will probably help you.  However, if doing so does not help your utilization, and requires a hard credit pull, then it may hurt you a bit.

[visorboy1974]

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@jyml8582 wrote:

Hi all, just signed up to myFICO, hopefully their service will help me keep an eye on my financial responsibilities!

I have a few questions regarding credit card usage that I've been trying to get some answers for...hopefully I can find them here!!

Here goes...

1. Will paying off large credit card balance help improving my credit? For example: I have a credit card with credit line of 5000, if I use up 4800 but pay it off completely when the bill is due, and do it for several months, will it help my credit score or hurt it?

2. Will requesting credit line increase on multiple existing credit cards hurt my credit score?

Thank you all in advance for helping !!

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1.  If you're letting the $4800 balance report when the statement cuts, it won't matter if you're paying the card off, it'll show as 96% utilization on your credit report.  Now if you pay it off before the issuer reports to the CRAs, then yeah, it'll look better and your scores have potential to go up.  

2.  Requesting CLIs may result in a hard pull which can cost one a few points on their credit score.  On the other hand, if the CLIs are successful, they'll help your utilization which could raise the credit scores.