$0 balance reporting on credit cards

[Anonymous]

Will reporting $0 balance on credit card impact the credit score negatively ?

Message Edited by llecs on 01-07-2010 11:01 AM

[llecs]

KeepCool, I split your post to form a new thread here. I had to change the subject line and changed nothing else. If you'd like to change the subject line to something else, click "Options" and then "Edit Message" to make that change.

To answer your question, your ultimate goal per CC reporting is to get all CCs but one to $0 and get the remaining CC to report a balance of under 9% of the CL. Some have reported a slight score drop when comparing all but one reporting a $0 balance w/ the remaining reporting a small balance vs. all of them reporting $0.

[marty56]

I recommend that people at least try to have zero balance report for everything just to get a baseline.  It is always easy (too easy) to allow a balance to report.  When I went to refi my mortgage, I let 0% report even with a slight EQ (3 points) loss, my TU +10) liked the 0%.   LOL the irony was they only pulled EX for the refi (go figure).

Keep in mind that 0% util always looks good on a MR, especially  for a mortgage or a auto loan.  

[Anonymous]

+1

I managed to have all reporting 0, and my EQ FICO remained stable.  709 with one account reporting 3% balance.  709 with all accounts at 0%.  709 with one account at 8-9%.

I'm not at all sure I'll get the same FICO EQ response next time I try it, but that's what I go this time round.  Go figure.

[haulingthescoreup]

And it can be different on TU FICO. The baseline of all $0's is a good idea.

I've seen points lost on my own scores for all $0, but it wasn't a lot. (5 point range, if I recall correctly.)