Payoff Credit Card in Full or Not?

[Anonymous]

Here's my situation.  DW and I are rebuilding after Ch13 BK in 2004.  I currently have an Orchard Bank CC with $300 CL, and I'm an AU on DW's closed Citi CC that reports $1076 balance and $11500 CL.  I was planning on using a portion of this year's federal tax refund to payoff the Citi CC in full.  However, yesterday I read on these forums that a closed CC will count in the FICO utilization calculation IFF it reports a non-zero balance and CL.  Would it make any sense to pay most but not all of the Citi CC balance so that its large CL will keep my utilization low regardless of how much I charge to the Orchard Bank CC each month, freeing me from having to carefully time my OB payment(s)?  We've been diligent about paying down the Citi CC over the past couple of years, but should I be concerned about the risk of a chargeoff?  Any advice on this is most welcome.

[Creditaddict]

Not sure why the account would charge off if your paying it?

It's never a good idea to carry balances just for Fico purposes when you are paying interest... and paid off debt always looks better then having debt

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't think either that the account is likely to be charged off since I'm paying it, but I just wanted to pose the question since a charge off is to be avoided at all costs.  As for carrying a small balance, say $100, it simply seemed like it might be worth the $1.25/month in interest to be able to use the full $300 Orchard Bank CL while still maintaining low overall utilization.  Again, I could also achieve this by timing the Orchard Bank payment just right (i.e. prior to the snapshot forwarded to the CRA's), but all else being equal, it might be worth $1.25/month to me to eliminate this inconvenience.

[mauve]

Have you tried calling Citi and asking if you paid in full if they would consider re-opening that account? 

[Anonymous]

That's an interesting suggestion that I hadn't considered.  Have you ever heard of Citi or anybody else reopening a closed account?  That sure would be nice since it would also have a significant impact on my AAoA.

[mauve]

I've seen postings where credit cards have agreed to do that - I don't know about Citi specifically.