Doesn't make sense - Score increase for debt

[Minato08]

Since coming here, I learned (or at least thought I learned) a lot about credit reporting.  However, something weird happened recently. 

I've been keeping my credit cards at 0 balances for the last several months.  Before then, I had large balances and I saw my score jump dramatically for paying them off (about 100 points).   Just the other day, one of my cards reported a $1.00 balance and my fico jumped up another 15 points.  This is counterintuitive to say the least. 

[Anonymous]

i believe is not because of the debt , there is another x  factor , for example your acct getting older or etc

[Anonymous]

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@Minato08 wrote:

Since coming here, I learned (or at least thought I learned) a lot about credit reporting.  However, something weird happened recently. 

I've been keeping my credit cards at 0 balances for the last several months.  Before then, I had large balances and I saw my score jump dramatically for paying them off (about 100 points).   Just the other day, one of my cards reported a $1.00 balance and my fico jumped up another 15 points.  This is counterintuitive to say the least. 

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No, that's normal. If all your cards report zero balances, you show that you don't use any credit and get dinged by the scoring formula. Reporting one balance of $1.00 shows that you make use of credit, but don't carry large balances. If you don't use credit, your score will be penalized.

[Creditaddict]

yes you need to have at least 1 card a month report a balance less than 9% of your credit line for optimizing score. If you have several accounts, I would rotate which one reports each month

[Uborrow-Upay]

+1

"Juicy Fruit Ficos". 

Buy a pack (or two) of gum, let that balance report...and chew your way to higher Fico scores!