@0REDSOX7 wrote:
Have one carry a balance that posts to the CBs with less than 10% utilization.
If these accounts aren't affecting your AAoA too bad, might want to consider closing some - because having too much open, available credit can be seen as a risk to an underwriter for a mortgage. If the limits aren't that high, then it's okay. If they are high, say, you have 20k in available credit - this would make you a risk.
Some here may disagree with that practice, but my sister is a mortgage loan officer for a local bank and this can hurt you at times.
A couple of things here.
If you have several CCs, and wish to optimize utilization scoring, then it's advised to let one of them report a small balance, and the others at $0.
If you let a balance report, and then pay it off before the due date, you will avoid paying interest, but the reported balance, whether low or high, will factor into your utilization. This may or may not be a problem. The worst-case scenario is where you have a CC with a limit like $500, and you let $475 report, and then pay it off.
Utilization scoring looks both at the overall utilization percentage, and the percentage of individual CCs, so this scenario is one to try to avoid.
Closing CCs has no immediate effect on your AAoA. The effect is deferred to the point when the closed account drops off your reports -- maybe 10 years out.
Reducing your available limits will not help your scores. It will hurt them if you have significant utilization.
Reducing limits may help with manual underwriting in some cases, and hurt in other cases.
