Should I pay all accounts off to 0 or should I leave...

[itzateach]

a little bit in ONE card or a little bit in more than ONE card? I just read a post where someone said that leaving in some balance kept his score 20 pts higher than paying it down to 0. I have one card that says 29.00 every month because I am an authorized user and I guess that is what the balance was when I became one,(it never updates - citibank) because the true balance is 8400 bucks (my hubby's). Will that count in my utilization?

[marty56]

I dont know about AU but if you dont show any CC balances, you will loose points.

It does not take much to show a balance since $1 is the same as a full 1% of your total CC creditl.  It may take you some time to get the reporting cylce right since some CCCs dont always report at the same time and IMHO they are slow to repor $0.  GEMB is really bad.

[Anonymous]

Paying off your cards IN FULL and having a small statement balance report are NOT mutually exclusive, you can do both.

You can pay off all existing debt on your cards in full so that you stop accruing interest, and then make a small purchase which you then pay off when the next statement posts.  As long as you pay in full before the due date, you can make a purchase each month, not accrue interest, and have a small balance report on that one card.