Adjusting credit cards for loan approval

[MrCrabs]

Still dealing with quicken loans credit team to get my scores up, currently sitting at 620 myfico EQ , have one collection I PFD and will leave me with just 1 collection (medical) left on my reports, hoping to gain some points there as well. But I guess they use computer program telling me what I should do, and they're suggesting to have 2 cards at 10% utilization, but I thought it was better to have all cards but one at 0% and one card at 1-9% am I off on this or are they giving bad advice? I've heard their credit team isn't the most knowledgeable and I know they kept asking me open another card(have 3 currently) until I just told them flat no, that's not an option so quit asking and they finally let it go. Anyway should I have 2 cards at 10% or one card between 1-9% and rest at zero for max point gains?

[andemalia]

You are right. Pay down all to 0 but one at under 9%, preferably under 5%. 3 cards is plenty plus you don't need to waste an inquiry (point drop) or decrease your AAoA which would also result in a point drop. Don't listen to them. You know better. Unless you are ready to suffer a temporary point drop for a longer term point gain. The only way additional cards can help you is in your utilization. Maybe you can request CLI if you have a good history with the CC you already have but with most CC companies it results into a hard pull (point drop). So the game is yours to play. If you need the most points now in the short term, I would stick to 0 balances on everythig but one card under 9%.