utilization andpoints

[Anonymous]

So i have a utilization right now of 85% and i have three cards and an old capital one chargeoff thatis factoring in.

Cap one Platinum-298/750

Cap one QS- 970/1000

Citizens bank-390/500

Victoria secret-0/250

Cap one chargeoff -702

I am wondering whether i shouldpay in mnthly payments or pay lump sums now that i have a bit of extra cash.Which one do you guys think I should do in order to get themost pointspn my credit score.

Experien-562 Transunion-612 Equifax-590

[Relique]

If you had the money, it is better to pay them off just to avoid the interest if nothing else. You end up paying them way more in the long term.

For scoring purposes you want low utilization but not zero. If you want to boost the score then it's probably best to pay all cards but one, leaving a very small balance on it. 

[Anonymous]

hank you so muchim going to pay them all off except for one.My short term goal is to really get all my scores over 600.Two ofmy cards are 0% interest for awhile so im not really worried about interest.Then i will work on paying off my medical collections.

[Relique]

No problem. If you are gonna pay collections I recommend searching the board for PFD (pay for delete) letters and information. From what I've seen reading around the forum, medical bill collectors tend to be more receptive to pay for delete requests.

[Anonymous]

Wow i just noticed you really bumped your score alot within two years!Congrats!Will do on those letters

[Anonymous]

---

@Relique wrote:

For scoring purposes you want low utilization but not zero. If you want to boost the score then it's probably best to pay all cards but one, leaving a very small balance on it. 

---

Ok so I'm kinda confused now by util. Thought I had it figured out,  but now, not so much.  Let's say I have 4 different cards with statements on them closing in each separate week of the month.  From what understand so far is that when each statement closes,  the creditor sends the statement info to the CRAs.  So why don't you want a zero balance on each one when the statement closes or a very small amount on each one?  Why leave a small balance on only one?  

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Relique wrote:

For scoring purposes you want low utilization but not zero. If you want to boost the score then it's probably best to pay all cards but one, leaving a very small balance on it. 

---

Ok so I'm kinda confused now by util. Thought I had it figured out,  but now, not so much.  Let's say I have 4 different cards with statements on them closing in each separate week of the month.  From what understand so far is that when each statement closes,  the creditor sends the statement info to the CRAs.  So why don't you want a zero balance on each one when the statement closes or a very small amount on each one?  Why leave a small balance on only one?  

---

Because thats just the way FICO works. You get maximum score with a small balance of less than 10% on one of your cards. There is really no logical reason behind it, it just IS.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if anyone can actually answer this or not, but if i have one card at 1% of its utilization...and that 1% makes up something like .15 % of my overall ( $9/6850 ). Would this be maximizing? or would that essentially count as 0%, despite there being a small balance? I got stuck with 2 cards reporting less than 10 dollars last month and one reporting 377. 377 and one of the others report at the same time. Should i pay those both down to zero to maximize my score? or do i have to wait a full cycle now and leave a slightly higher balance on JUST one? (currently 3 technically have a balance)