Utilization situation - please advise

[Anonymous]

I am a newbie and I have been reading various threads regarding utilization (a term I had never heard of before looking at this site). In a few months (4-5) I intend to apply for a mortgage and I think my credit card situation and future usage can be changed to improve my FICO score. I have always PIF on all the credit cards and never “carry a balance”. 

Here are the credit cards I have and how I use them:

1. I have a Wal-Mart cc that has a $600 CL, I have had it for a couple of years and I hardly ever use it. The maximum monthly balance was probable $50.
2. I have a Mobil gas cc that has a $250 CL, I have had it for a couple of years and I hardly use it. The maximum monthly balance was probably $35.
3. I have a BOA cc that has a $16,000 CL, I have had it for ten years. My monthly balances can and routinely do amount to $5000-$7000. Because it is a rewards card I want to continue to use this cc a lot.
4. I have a new Citi cc with a $15,000 CL, I just got it 2 months ago and it has only had a maximum monthly balance of $35

Here are my questions:

What should I do, if anything regarding the Wal-Mart and Mobil cc’s? I gather I should use them more frequently.

From reading the threads I can, and should, lower the utilization % from 35-50% on the BOA cc. I can do this for the next several months by paying the balance down to 1-9% utilization before they report it to the CRA’s. However, when exactly is the date that BOA will report it to them? From what I read it appears to be the statement date which is around the 15th of each month. Therefore 4-5 days before the statement date I should pay the balance down.

If I can keep the utilization % within 1-9% for the individual cc and the total cc CL I should improve my FICO score. Please let me know if what I have said “makes sense” Thanks.    

[Anonymous]

Hi rural, welcome to the forum.

IMO, your prime directive should be reducing the utils on the BoA to less than 10%.
Your balance on it is actually hurting you. Even if it means not using it at all.

Continue to keep low low utils on the remaining cards, or even PIF.

Keep the util on the Citi card extremely low as well.

[Anonymous]

It appears as if you have a very sensible plan.  Keep that up and your scores should skyrocket!

I don't see any problem with what you're doing.  And keep all the cards.  You've got some great TLs going on.  Maybe get a loc increase on the two cards with the lower limits.  Otherwise, awesome.

[haulingthescoreup]

For the best score zing, only let half or fewer of your accounts (this is including mortgage, installment, CC's, etc.) report a balance, AND let fewer than half of your CC's report, with total util less than 10%. So in your case, that's only one card reporting, since you have 4 cards. I know that seems ridiculous, but I got 14 points off of TU this way. Even when I had exactly half of my accounts reporting, I still got a snotty comment about too many accounts with balances.

Sounds like you've got the rest of it down! DH's BofA does report on the statement date, so yours probably does, too.

I thought that you only needed to do this once to get the big score jump, but it's looking like if you keep doing this in subsequent months, the scores continue to climb. I PIF anyway, so I've just decided to let my cards take turns reporting, just one per month. For me it's a lot simpler than trying to keep multiple cards at magic percentages.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions. I'm embarrassed that I never knew about the concept of utilization. What a simple way to earn some extra points on your score. I will be reading some of the other threads and posting some other questions too - especially regarding my wife's score/report which is a bit more complicated then mine.