@Anonymous wrote:I've been reading about revolving accounts and such and basically am looking for some clarification here. I know that the "sweet spot" may be different for each individual profile, but as a general rule if you've got 3-4 credit cards... what would be the best use of them in order to achieve the most favorable credit score? While keeping TOTAL utilization across the cards to 9% or less or PIF each month, is it better to run a handful of transactions through each card each month and then PIF, or run say 1 transaction through all but 1 card and a ton of transactions on the final card, but still PIF on all of them? Then rotate the card that you run the most transactions through from month to month? I'm just trying to figure out the best means of attack with multiple cards to get from the low 700's into the upper 700's over time.
It's optimum to have all but one report at zero balance, and the other to report a sub-9% balance.
@Anonymous wrote:Understood. Is there any benefit to switching up which one reports the 9% (or less) balance from month to month so that every 3rd or 4th month each card would report a small balance, or does that not really matter FICO score wise? I would also think that over time switching up which card you use more could help get CLI's... that is if you have the same 2-3 cards that sit with no balance / very little usage it may be tougher to get CLI's on them?
1. No it doesn't make a difference.
2. Using the card, for CLI purposes, does matter to the bank which issues the card; but they don't need to know what's in your credit report or statement balance to tell them that. You can have tons of usage, and still show zero balance, if you pay it off before the statement cuts.