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How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

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BronzeTrader
Valued Contributor

How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

I have some CCs in dormant stage for quite some time. So I put on some charges with them, just $100 or so. And I do not carry interest. One of the credit bureaus is not happy about it and complains about it. 

 

Now my question is that, how many CCs with balance (even small) would be just right? I know if you just use one one or two, probably it is not great for the CC companies. Having 10 or more may be too many. Not sure, maybe 5-6 about right??

 

Message 1 of 27
26 REPLIES 26
austinguy907
Valued Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

I find leaving a balance on 2 out of 10 of my accounts to be ideal.  Even a small balance on a 3rd card cost me a few points for December.  TU dropped from 841 to 832 where it had been for a few months before.  Obviously it doesn't make that much of an impact though when not in the shopping for credit mode.  Even with the slight drop it wouldn't effect any new credit seeking at this point.  I rotate in my oldest dormant card each month for my cell bill and then PIF when it's due.  If you let them stay dormant for say 6 months then the positive history doesn't count towards additional points on your score.  

 

I would be more concerned with your portfolio though being Chase and BOA without some diversity it's a time bomb waiting to go off.  I know we all do things differently and have different plans for our portfolios like some of your posts indicate you like to collect the bonuses and throw them in the SD or just close them out.  Which is fine I suppose.  I like to not double up on a single lender in case something in the market spooks them and in your case 50% of your cards would be effected by a change in the wind direction with some lenders.

Message 2 of 27
Gmood1
Super Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

Not sure if there's a right or wrong answer here. I normally have 12 or 13 reporting balances. I don't micromanage my accounts reporting balances though. This could be why I receive so many BT offers as well. Sometimes 3 in the mail on one day from different banks.

It will also depend on the overall number of accounts to begin with.

Hopefully one of the micromanaging gurus will chime in.

I'm in the camp, I want my creditors to see how I manage my accounts. With zero balances or one reporting, there's not much to go on. 

I get the score optimization thing, unfortunately the score is only one part of a potential approval.

Message 3 of 27
BronzeTrader
Valued Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?


@austinguy907 wrote:

I find leaving a balance on 2 out of 10 of my accounts to be ideal.  Even a small balance on a 3rd card cost me a few points for December.  TU dropped from 841 to 832 where it had been for a few months before.  Obviously it doesn't make that much of an impact though when not in the shopping for credit mode.  Even with the slight drop it wouldn't effect any new credit seeking at this point.  I rotate in my oldest dormant card each month for my cell bill and then PIF when it's due.  If you let them stay dormant for say 6 months then the positive history doesn't count towards additional points on your score.  

 

I would be more concerned with your portfolio though being Chase and BOA without some diversity it's a time bomb waiting to go off.  I know we all do things differently and have different plans for our portfolios like some of your posts indicate you like to collect the bonuses and throw them in the SD or just close them out.  Which is fine I suppose.  I like to not double up on a single lender in case something in the market spooks them and in your case 50% of your cards would be effected by a change in the wind direction with some lenders.


The CCs in my signature are all my drivers. So I totally have active about 6-7 of them. I'm not concerned with my CC portfolio. It is hard to imagine Chase or BA going down. I still have AmEx, Citi, Discover, US Bank and Wells Fargo CCs. But they are mostly dormant. No point in chasing the points all over the places. I may just bring them back with $10 or so, maybe twice a year.

 

I still think my current 8-9 active CCs are a little high. Or I may just leave them dormant and hope the CC companies won't close them automatically. 

Message 4 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

To maximize your score I would suggest letting 1 card report a small balance and have all others report $0.  Of course you want to use all cards at least once a quarter to avoid getting them closed for inactivity... but you can still pay them to $0 before the statement cuts.

Message 5 of 27
austinguy907
Valued Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?

I wasn't really saying that either of them would "go down" I was more inline with the thought of 2008 when they all took AA/CLD measures to protect themselves during the consolidation needed from the failed institutions.  It's good that you have some backups though through other lenders and it's key to maybe do the $10 trick on them every 6 months to make sure and at the most every 12 months. The longest I went w/o using a single card was 22-23 months before they closed it for inactivity.  Didn't hurt much though by picking up replacements with AMEX / Disc that have grown to a combined 9X the limit of the one that got closed. The two to keep an eye on from what I recall recently would be Citi / USB for non-use.  I think they both send a notice of some sort but, I recall one of them just closing you down after month 13 and then sending something.

Message 6 of 27
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?


@Anonymous wrote:

To maximize your score I would suggest letting 1 card report a small balance and have all others report $0.  


This is THE myfico mantra, just not sure how true it is for FICO 8 and for ALL credit profiles.   I have between 6-8 reporting and still get 850, if I let a few more report it has gone down.    

Message 7 of 27
BronzeTrader
Valued Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?


@longtimelurker wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

To maximize your score I would suggest letting 1 card report a small balance and have all others report $0.  


This is THE myfico mantra, just not sure how true it is for FICO 8 and for ALL credit profiles.   I have between 6-8 reporting and still get 850, if I let a few more report it has gone down.    


I think the other poster says leaving $1 balance, not paid. I think if you use the CC and pay it off, it still gets reported. All my CCs are paid on time, but  still Experian does not like it:

 

FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances.

 

Several of my CCs are paid off this month (going to dormant). So this problem is going away in some sense. I just hope leaving 6-7 active would be still good. Wait and See.

Message 8 of 27
Loquat
Moderator Emeritus

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?


@Gmood1 wrote:

Not sure if there's a right or wrong answer here. I normally have 12 or 13 reporting balances. I don't micromanage my accounts reporting balances though. This could be why I receive so many BT offers as well. Sometimes 3 in the mail on one day from different banks.

It will also depend on the overall number of accounts to begin with.

Hopefully one of the micromanaging gurus will chime in.

I'm in the camp, I want my creditors to see how I manage my accounts. With zero balances or one reporting, there's not much to go on. 

I get the score optimization thing, unfortunately the score is only one part of a potential approval.


+1  I use to micromanage in efforts to keep my score as high as possible.  Needless to say it became a very tiring and tedious task so now I let my balances cut as they may.  I do pay in full to avoid interest but I just don't care enough to pay before statements cut.  I'm sure I could squeeze an additional few points out of doing so but I typically range between 720-730 across all reports and I'm okay with that as I'm not looking to finance of apply for any additional credit any time soon. 

Message 9 of 27
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: How Many Cards with Balances Would Be Good?


@BronzeTrader wrote:

@longtimelurker wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

To maximize your score I would suggest letting 1 card report a small balance and have all others report $0.  


This is THE myfico mantra, just not sure how true it is for FICO 8 and for ALL credit profiles.   I have between 6-8 reporting and still get 850, if I let a few more report it has gone down.    


I think the other poster says leaving $1 balance, not paid. I think if you use the CC and pay it off, it still gets reported. All my CCs are paid on time, but  still Experian does not like it:

 

FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances.

 

Several of my CCs are paid off this month (going to dormant). So this problem is going away in some sense. I just hope leaving 6-7 active would be still good. Wait and See.


RIght, any balance remaining on the statement (or at the end of the month in the case of US Bank/Elan) gets reported.   What many people here do is pay all but one card down to $0 BEFORE statement cut.

 

And yes, clearly too many balances causes a score hit, but I am not sure that 1 is optimal for all.

Message 10 of 27
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