Found out for myself...ALWAYS owe something on a CC

[pmc123]

I am now prepared to do the same experiment. I have good scores and expect them to drop a few points, but I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what your score is (within reason), unless someone is going to look at it and use it to make a credit decision.

I think it is far better to eliminate interest payments than to worry about the actual score.......

Edited to move the rest of the post to General Credit

Message Edited by pmc123 on 03-20-2009 08:46 AM

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to chime in that you can have your cake and eat it too, in this regard. I don't pay a dime of interest, because I PIF, but I don't like to lose those 7-10 FICO points that I seem to drop by not having a small balance to show "responsible use of credit". By figuring out when my lenders reported to the bureaus I've been able to have the best of both worlds.

[haulingthescoreup]

I did the same experiment two months ago, and lost 2, 4, and 6 points (can't remember which CRA was which, but those were the numbers.)

It's the sort of thing that isn't huge on a daily basis, but anyone going for an important app like a mortgage should be aware of this and tweak their reported util accordingly.

[geronimo2008]

Just pay the account by the due date. You will report a balancve and you will avoid interest.

[haulingthescoreup]

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geronimo2008 wrote:
Just pay the account by the due date. You will report a balancve and you will avoid interest.

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But you don't want to do this with every account, or you'll get a pretty impressive ding from "too many accounts with balances."

[wmarat]

I have experimented with balances for a while. My conclusion is that nobody including Isaac himself knows how it works. I've lost 7 points for $1 balance on $5600 card and I've gained 8 points for $57 balance on $10000 card, so go figure.

[Uborrow-Upay]

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@wmarat wrote:

I have experimented with balances for a while. My conclusion is that nobody including Isaac himself knows how it works. I've lost 7 points for $1 balance on $5600 card and I've gained 8 points for $57 balance on $10000 card, so go figure.

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Yeah, tell me about it!  During the past Christmas holiday, I had one card at over 80% util. when it reported.  I thought I'd get a big ding for that, but it only took me down 1 point...just 1.  Having no balance on any card brought me down 6!

I'm glad there are other "gotta find out for myself" folks here, it'll make it much  less painful for when I do something stupid in the interests of credit-scoring education!

[moondog7324]

I'm not saying completely ignore your FICO- it is important to know how to tweak it to get from 615 to 625 if your mortgage shopping- but I've been guilty in the past of wondering "what if"- if I get the Target card or the Crown Jewelers-it can almost become an addiction- When you first start credit repair you see wonderful things happen when you get that collection deleted or a late fee removed- but everyonce in awhile you get blindsided by an updated charge off or a new collection and phone calls from a dormant account you awoken. Im just advocating take control of your debt- create good habits and have patience. I have a secured account that will go unsecure next month- $1000.... I'm thinking I can get that raised to a 5G credit line- but Do I really need it??? I made a pledge at the beginning of the year- No Inquiries in 2009,unless it's for a mortgage.

[Anonymous]

I just posted about this same thing in the general credit section. Didn't see this post first. I just had zero accounts report a balance and lost 9 points on EQ and 27 on TU!!

[UpNUp]

I just lost 8 points because my utilization went up to 7%.

You are damned if you do and damned if you dont!!

Message Edited by UpNUp on 04-03-2009 09:45 AM

Message Edited by UpNUp on 04-03-2009 09:45 AM