hmm, i understand that a lower UT is better, but if you have the money in hand to pay it off, wouldn't your scores benefit more by making 6 HUGE payments rather than 1? doesn't the history help you more? I used the simulator to estimate scores to pay off my $1500 revolving debt. paying at once gave maybe a 10pt gain, while paying 6 months gave me a 50-100pt projected increase. please edu-ma-cate me. 
As I understand it, FICO is just a snapshot and shows what your balances and credit limits and baddies are at that very moment, so the closer to 1%, the better. I know what you mean about the simulator--I've seen it too--maybe what it means is that if you keep up the habit of paying almost all the way off, each month after month on any account, the scores will be even higher. But then each report is not a snapshot, hmmm.....
Tuscani and fused, help! If the scores are snapshots, how does FICO know about a pattern of regular payments, other than there are no 30's littering up the place? Either it is, or it isn't, looking at what's going on that very moment! aaarghhhh 
haulingthescoreup wrote:
As I understand it, FICO is just a snapshot and shows what your balances and credit limits and baddies are at that very moment, so the closer to 1%, the better. I know what you mean about the simulator--I've seen it too--maybe what it means is that if you keep up the habit of paying almost all the way off, each month after month on any account, the scores will be even higher. But then each report is not a snapshot, hmmm.....Tuscani and fused, help! If the scores are snapshots, how does FICO know about a pattern of regular payments, other than there are no 30's littering up the place? Either it is, or it isn't, looking at what's going on that very moment! aaarghhhh
Yes, your util% is like a snapshot. When your credit reports are pulled they do not show any util% history unlike like payment history which does-...only your current util% at the moment the reports are pulled.
