General Credit Topics

[okrogius]

"Well done managing that credit account! Actually, to boost your FICO, you want to show about a 15% utilization on the cbr for that account each month. For example if the credit line is $3,000.00, you want a balance of $450.00 to be reported each month...that will help the score out better than a zero balance....the creditor won't report the account as inactive since it's not inactive."

Wrong. That only hurts the score both by extra utilization and an additional tradeline with a balance. Plus you're likely wasting money on interest.

[masdeocho]

The OP said he/she has only one card that he/she pays in full each month.  Having a zero balance when the account is reported doesn't hurt the credit score, but doesn't help it.  I agree that having a 15% utilization when the account is reported to the bureau is optimum, if you're going to split hairs over this.

[weezie]

Respectfully disagree. Having a zero balance when your card reports *does* hurt your credit score. I almost always pay off the balance on all of my cards each month without worrying about when the card companies report. When I've pulled my FICO reports during months when there's a $0 balance reported on all cards, FICO lists the fact that I have zero balances on my cards as a "NEGATIVE" factor, even though I've generated activity by using at least 3 out of 4 cards that month. This has happened 2 or 3 times in the past few years with Experian and TransUnion reports generated by FICO.

[Tuscani]

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weezie wrote:
Respectfully disagree. Having a zero balance when your card reports *does* hurt your credit score. I almost always pay off the balance on all of my cards each month without worrying about when the card companies report. When I've pulled my FICO reports during months when there's a $0 balance reported on all cards, FICO lists the fact that I have zero balances on my cards as a "NEGATIVE" factor, even though I've generated activity by using at least 3 out of 4 cards that month. This has happened 2 or 3 times in the past few years with Experian and TransUnion reports generated by FICO.

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This is true. IMO, under 10% util is ideal.

[masdeocho]

It means a range of things to say whether something "helps" or "hurts" your score.  A 30-day late pay may have a negligible effect if you already have a bad recent payment history.  A single late pay can totally tank your score if you have a perfect payment history.  So a zero balance isn't necessarily going to have the same effect on everyone's report.

I think we all are agreeing that optimum utilization is somewhere around 10-15%.