@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
The one card would have a utilization of about 65% (with an overall utilization of 11%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
No.
Better not to have any accounts with high utilization.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
The one card would have a utilization of about 65% (with an overall utilization of 11%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
No.
Better not to have any accounts with high utilization.
I understand that, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm the QUEEN of keeping all things financial under control. I'm OCD in that respect. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
The one card would have a utilization of about 65% (with an overall utilization of 11%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
No.
Better not to have any accounts with high utilization.
I understand that, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm the QUEEN of keeping all things financial under control. I'm OCD in that respect.
Talking just FICO, in my experience on my data which of course is all acedotal, better for FICO to have that 65% balance on a single card than spread out on a bunch of cards. In my case with 9 tradelines I took a recent 6 point hit for having a 87.5% tradeline report (2.5% overall give or take) whereas if I get to 5/9 cards reporting a balance I drop 7; EQ FICO 8 but TU/EX have held similarly.
In the case of the BT if you go over 90% could be worse, but we don't have a good datapoint for that yet; this all assumes of course that your aggregate utilization is basically constant pre/post BT. End of the day if it makes sense to do financially, do so.
AA kinda doubtful unless you have a pattern of carrying / increasing balances... kicking $1500/month to your CC debt, I rather doubt it.
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
The one card would have a utilization of about 65% (with an overall utilization of 11%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
No.
Better not to have any accounts with high utilization.
I understand that, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm the QUEEN of keeping all things financial under control. I'm OCD in that respect.
Talking just FICO, in my experience on my data which of course is all acedotal, better for FICO to have that 65% balance on a single card than spread out on a bunch of cards. In my case with 9 tradelines I took a recent 6 point hit for having a 87.5% tradeline report (2.5% overall give or take) whereas if I get to 5/9 cards reporting a balance I drop 7; EQ FICO 8 but TU/EX have held similarly.
In the case of the BT if you go over 90% could be worse, but we don't have a good datapoint for that yet; this all assumes of course that your aggregate utilization is basically constant pre/post BT. End of the day if it makes sense to do financially, do so.
AA kinda doubtful unless you have a pattern of carrying / increasing balances... kicking $1500/month to your CC debt, I rather doubt it.
Thanks! I edited the utilization. It would actually be lower. Right now I pay about $1000/week on cards because I'm so paranoid. I actually lose sleep over trying to figure things out. I'd love to now have so many to pay throughout the month.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
The one card would have a utilization of about 65% (with an overall utilization of 11%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
No.
Better not to have any accounts with high utilization.
I understand that, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm the QUEEN of keeping all things financial under control. I'm OCD in that respect.
Talking just FICO, in my experience on my data which of course is all acedotal, better for FICO to have that 65% balance on a single card than spread out on a bunch of cards. In my case with 9 tradelines I took a recent 6 point hit for having a 87.5% tradeline report (2.5% overall give or take) whereas if I get to 5/9 cards reporting a balance I drop 7; EQ FICO 8 but TU/EX have held similarly.
In the case of the BT if you go over 90% could be worse, but we don't have a good datapoint for that yet; this all assumes of course that your aggregate utilization is basically constant pre/post BT. End of the day if it makes sense to do financially, do so.
AA kinda doubtful unless you have a pattern of carrying / increasing balances... kicking $1500/month to your CC debt, I rather doubt it.
Thanks! I edited the utilization. It would actually be lower. Right now I pay about $1000/week on cards because I'm so paranoid. I actually lose sleep over trying to figure things out. I'd love to now have so many to pay throughout the month.
Seriously, if it'd improve your quality of life by enabling you to get better sleep, just go do it.
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
(EDITED to show correct utilization figures) The one card would have a utilization of about 59% by the time it showed up on my reports (with an overall utilization of 10%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
Why would you consider BT to one card? Does that one card have a 0% APR offer?
Are the other cards on some sort of low APR or 0% offer? I presume they are already carrying balances, are not PIF. Because if they are carrying balances on low APR offers, then you are better off financially leaving the balances on those dispersed cards, to run out that beneficial interest rate, and then when the gig is up, look at options for where to transfer them to continue lower rates. Or, better yet, apply that $1,500 per month to the dispersed cards to just pay them to zero where they sit.
If the items are dispersed on multiple low APR/ 0% rates that you have already paid to BT to those items, then you are accelerating your APR cost, due to BT fees at least, in a way that is not necessary. You would be paying more than you should.
You notice that I am not addressing your utilization question, because with BT, your first and main concern is how do you save interest cost the best. Not FICO scores.
You should redirect your OCD tendencies to managing interest cost to be minimized, not number of cards reporting. 
@NRB525 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm playing around with my spreadsheet and have a question. At the end of this month my overall utilization will be 12.4% but I have balances on 5 cards.
If I BT all of my balances to one card with a high CL, would that look better on my CR than having five cards with balances?
(EDITED to show correct utilization figures) The one card would have a utilization of about 59% by the time it showed up on my reports (with an overall utilization of 10%) but I'd be paying about $1500 per month working on getting that down.
I'll just put rent, groceries and utilities on another card or two each month and PIF on those. Trying to see if that one large balance will look bad or cause an AA on anything.??
Why would you consider BT to one card? Does that one card have a 0% APR offer?
Are the other cards on some sort of low APR or 0% offer? I presume they are already carrying balances, are not PIF. Because if they are carrying balances on low APR offers, then you are better off financially leaving the balances on those dispersed cards, to run out that beneficial interest rate, and then when the gig is up, look at options for where to transfer them to continue lower rates. Or, better yet, apply that $1,500 per month to the dispersed cards to just pay them to zero where they sit.
If the items are dispersed on multiple low APR/ 0% rates that you have already paid to BT to those items, then you are accelerating your APR cost, due to BT fees at least, in a way that is not necessary. You would be paying more than you should.
You notice that I am not addressing your utilization question, because with BT, your first and main concern is how do you save interest cost the best. Not FICO scores.
You should redirect your OCD tendencies to managing interest cost to be minimized, not number of cards reporting.
Wow.