Hey everyone!
I saw some threads on this matter and couldn't find a direct answer - after getting approved for three cards, my total credit line went from $1,000 to $10,500 (plus an AmEx charge card). I've been following the rule of recording less than 10% utilization for six months with my one $1,000 card, which obviously was just "don't let the statement cut with a balance of more than $100."
Now, I have $10,500 to use and I like to pay down my cards fairly quickly - would having my total credit lines report less than 1% be bad for my score? Obviously less than 1% is $105, so would having it post anything below that like $90 dock my FICO scores when the utilization is reported to the agency?
Also, just to make sure - I am paying all of the cards down to $0 except one card and just letting that ONE card every month, correct? I would figure that I wouldn't just use one card all the time and let it report now that I have multiple. I'd figure I would rotate their use.
@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:Any balance on a card, even $1 or $2, will round up and report as 1% usage. They do not round down to 0
This hasn't been my experience. They will round down and reporting 0% utilization
is a temporary 20 point ding on my scores. unless you have an app planned in the
near future, I'd just let charges post and pay on the due date. Utilization has absolutely
no memory and your score can be tweaked for apps within a couple weeks.
Enjoy the benefits of your grace period and your larger limits.
+
850 FICO8 since 2015, Thanks MyFICO - 5+ years since last HP
Hmm, maybe I'll just let my balance go to 2% (about $200) every month and pay it off.
So when I'm paying all of my other cards down and letting one card report every month, I am letting a different card every month report, right?
For example, I have a Discover IT, Chase Freedom and Hawaiian Airlines World Elite (Barclay). Each card has $100 on it. This month I pay off the Hawaiian and Discover to let the Freedom report, next month I pay off the Chase and the Discover to let the Hawaiian report, etc. Does that seem correct?
@sccredit wrote:This is exactly how I use mine and I have never had an issue qualifying for anything. Even when I refinanced my mortgage I didn't curtail my normal usage and there was no problem with it.
That's another way to go about things. I really like tweaking my score and have no problem upholding the rules to do it, but maybe I can just reat it normally because I won't be apping for another six months.
So here are what my statement cuts look like:
Chase Freedom card cuts on the 3rd of every month
Hawaiian Airlines card cuts on the 5th of every month
Discover IT card cuts on the 19th of every month
If they all have separate cut dates, when do the three credit bureaus get that information/update my scores? Do they automatically see the three accounts and know that two of them reporting a zero balance isn't a problem?
@sccredit wrote:Mine normally report the day the statement is created (closing date or day after).
I tried at first to make sure that only one card reported and made my utilization 1% because that was going to max my score and blah blah blah. I eventually realized it was too much work and that 99% of people don't pay BEFORE the statement cuts so I was not going to let it bother me. I'll still pay off every month but I won't stress over it.
Ahh, I see. During that time of only letting one card report, did you rotate your cards to make a different card report every time? Did the credit bureaus know that you were having utilization on just one card while the others reported a 0 balance?