red259,
Yes,. Having absolutely ZERO utlization will lower your score a little. So yes, if you have $1 total balances on your cards, that will give you a better score than ZERO...not even a penny.
Start (Sept 2011): low-mid 600s. NOW: TU FICO: 801, EQ FICO 808, EX FICO 798 (PSECU). Goal: Achieved! Now Maintain!
@528491 wrote:
@b_seeker wrote:That difference shouldn't matter for apping purposes as far as utilization matters. I'm assuming you have more cards than showing in your sig though because I'm not getting 7% on a $500 balance from that.
Yep, I'm also an AU on a card with a $5000 limit.
Another question: My $500 balance is on a $1500 limit card. So my util on that card is 33%. Is that an issue, or does only the total util matter?
It is calculated on both individual card balances AND overall balances vs overall CL. You could take a big ding on any one card over 50% and a bigger ding at close to max.
OK, so do you think I should wait until that card drops to 1%? Or is 33% not an issue?
@528491 wrote:OK, so do you think I should wait until that card drops to 1%? Or is 33% not an issue?
The difference between overall 1% or 7% is probably not a big deal because with either of them I don't think that a creditor is concerned about the overall being in those ranges. However 33% is high to have on one card when you're trying to app. I would get that one card down to 10% or less before I app. And again, you're spinning your wheels worrying about the difference between 1 or 7% util becasue for most people, anything below 10% is good.
All right - in that case, I'll just make sure the statement cuts with ~$100 balance this month.
Thanks!
@Ailee92 wrote:1-7% can mean a huge difference. Personally mine has gained 20 points just from going from 7% to 1% this month alone.
True, it CAN be a huge difference, however all of our credit profiles are different, i.e AAoA, number of CC's with balances, number of CC's with excessively high util, number of baddies if any, etc. So that is why I stated that YOU need to test out YOUR OWN credit profile to know what util percentages affect YOU the most. It is not a one size fits all.