Whats the difference in keeping 1 card at 10% or all cards at 10%

[r2d3]

I have been reading the forums quite a bit and I see people suggest keeping 1 card at 10% and the rest at zero.  It seems better to me if you constantly use all your cards and keep them below 10% it would show more activity and a better fico.  What do you all think?

[twist7d7]

one card at 10 boosted my scores about 25 points.

[taxi818]

The Real Difference. which seems hard to understand for some. is not that you are at 10 percent or below . which gives you almost all the points in the utilization catagory. But think of it like this.

The more accounts you have with a 0 balance. as benefits your score. So if i have 10 accounts and 7 have a balance and total is under 10 percent.

My score would be higher if i only had 1 account with a balance under 10 percent.

You must show usage on your cards. And from what i have tested on my own. The closer you can get to 1 percent the better.

In fact even if you only leave 2 dollars on a card.

Fico will round that up to 1 percent. So its no big deal.

[vanillabean]

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@r2d3 wrote:

I have been reading the forums quite a bit and I see people suggest keeping 1 card at 10% and the rest at zero.  It seems better to me if you constantly use all your cards and keep them below 10% it would show more activity and a better fico.  What do you all think?

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It’s a self-reinforcing loop. First someone says, My score has never been higher than at one card under ten percent! Then someone else adds, I qualify too! And before you know, everyone happily joins in, Me too! Ten is just a round number; there’s no such particular cutoff, but people will jump at anything. The other day there was this report that the 92-year old Betty White "Dyes Peacefully in Her Los Angeles Home.” In no time, Twitter was flooded with posts from distressed fans upon learning that the actress has “died” while she had merely dyed her hair. It doesn’t take much! The one card approach under the classic versions of FICO works, probably due to statistics correlating more used cards with more debt; it’s the specific percentage that’s shaky. Also, my personal experience has shown it to be possible to have three cards with balances and still have a FICO 08 of 850; when that is said, I recommend keeping balances on less than half of your cards.

[longtimelurker]

You also have to remember that the model is meant to be statisically predictive, so there don't have to be understandable reasons why some things are better than others.   Certainly a number of people have tried various numbers of cards reporting, and 0 seems worse than 1, and more than 1 is worse  than 1.   Now if "number of cards with balance" is sort of bad, 0 should be better than 1, but apparently it isn't.   And this might be based on the fact that some people don't use their cards for long periods, then splurge and default, hence the correlation.

However, we don't know how reliable these reported results are, other things happen (such as cards age) so it's hard to be sure if the data is really correct.

More to the point, the differences between 0, 1, and 3 aren't all that big, and not worth the worry most of the time.

[taxi818]

True. not worth the worry. But if you got 7 cards say with even a small balance. you will see the difference. Example. and listen . you don't have to take any ones word for it. try it your self. and see how it works.

Had 4 cards with balances. I was around 12 percent total utilization at time. a week ago. 1 card few hurdred dollars. card 2. $21.00 Card 3. $76.00. Card 4. $143.05

Well I paid the card with lowest balance off. 21 bucks. Score jumped 3 points. I said how in the hell.

Then i paid the other 2 cards off . 143  and 76

No change in my Score

I only made small payment to card with few hundred dollars. as i have 13.months 0 APR

So i don't mind if that float until around XMAS<

so now i have 1 card with about 12 percent Util.

Last month. had 1 card with 9 percent util. soon as i charged on the other 3 cards. Even small balance. and let report. I lost 13 points on my equifax. but only gained 3 back. Sad,

So instead of taking other peoples word. Its ok if you experiment yourself. and you will see why we all say let balance on 1 card.

Remember they are only saying 10 percent to get you below certain amount. not set in stone. i did pay all cards in full before. nothing happened. but soon as i let a balance report. even small balance. i started to lose points. so imo. if i already have small balance. even 2 dollars on 1 card. then i will not be going down on points . i will at least maintain the score. until time improves things. like Hp's dropping off. and clis hitting my report. Good Luck. hope you get it . or you do it yourself to understand why we are saying that.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

The less cards you have with balances the better. Honestly, Ive not noticed a difference between having small balances (less than 1% util ) on half of my cards, a third, or even a quarter of my cards
But then again, I have about 20 cards and keep util in the 10-15% range.

Perhaps, the percentage of cards you have w balances does not compare to the sheer number.