How do I utilize my cards for the best scores?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys! The utilize part of building credit is confusing a bit to me. I want to grow my score as fast as it can, but I'm not sure how to use my card balances to do so. I know it should be less than 10% of you credit limits, but how many should report balances each month? Do I all have small balances or leave a couple with 0 or just one with a balance? Might be a dumb question, but I want to know Here's all my lastest statement balances (I NEVER carry a balance month to month and usally pay the day the statment cuts). Also, I put EVERYTHING on my cards each month. Bills, food, gas, literally everything. So I put a ot of money through and pay a lot before statement dates, do banks not like this?

Thanks!

BOA Cash rewards -- $17.85/1,000

Discover Chrome-- $80/1,000

Citi- TYP- $70/1,500

Old NavySYNC-- $0/700

AMEX Green -- $587/NPSL

[Anonymous]

A lot of people recommend leaving a small balance on and the rest 0 balances.  Personally I don't worry about it too much and as long as your utilization stays consistently below 10% and you make your payments on time your scores will rise.

And banks want you to use their cards as that's how they make money but they also want to see you paying off that use.  Consistently high balances not being paid down can be an indicator of future deliquincies so they frown upon that,

[mongstradamus]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey guys! The utilize part of building credit is confusing a bit to me. I want to grow my score as fast as it can, but I'm not sure how to use my card balances to do so. I know it should be less than 10% of you credit limits, but how many should report balances each month? Do I all have small balances or leave a couple with 0 or just one with a balance? Might be a dumb question, but I want to know Here's all my lastest statement balances (I NEVER carry a balance month to month and usally pay the day the statment cuts). Also, I put EVERYTHING on my cards each month. Bills, food, gas, literally everything. So I put a ot of money through and pay a lot before statement dates, do banks not like this?

Thanks!

BOA Cash rewards -- $17.85/1,000

Discover Chrome-- $80/1,000

Citi- TYP- $70/1,500

Old NavySYNC-- $0/700

AMEX Green -- $587/NPSL

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I think just have one card report an balance under 10% utilazation should be fine. All the other should have 0 reporting. Whats your AAoA it may take time if your file is an little bit on thin side. 

[takeshi74]

Ideal is one balance reporting 10% or less but it really doesn't matter much unless you're applying.  At all other times just keep it under 30% unless you just want to mcromanage to that degree.

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I put a ot of money through and pay a lot before statement dates, do banks not like this?

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They just want to get paid on time.  Some do have restrictions on payments (e.g. number or frequency, etc) but whether they "like" it or not is an entirely differnet matter.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice guys! and my AAoA is really low about 6 moths. My oldest account is about a year and a half now. And I heard that paying multiple times a month can hurt chances of CLIs. Just wondered if that was true

[Anonymous]

I wondered the same thing too in the past as I do make multiple payments per month on some of my cards but I've never noticed any negative impacts. However, this isn't for certain so if anybody else has an answer to this, it would be great to know.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the advice guys! and my AAoA is really low about 6 moths. My oldest account is about a year and a half now. And I heard that paying multiple times a month can hurt chances of CLIs. Just wondered if that was true

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You can't have an AAoA of less than a year. It's built into the system.