Credit Card Debt -- right amount

[Anonymous]

I'm new.  If this belongs somewhere else, please tell me.

Trying to boost my FICO scores, I paid all credit cards down to zero.   Is this a mistake?  Should I have a small balance?

(Further information.  Two of three had been high. One was close to maxed out.)

Thanks for any help. 

[Booner72]

For max FICO pointage, ONE account should have a very small balance 1-9% of it's limit.  So if you have a 1000.00 limit leave 10-90 dollars.  Easy fix - just go charge something.

FICO scores utilization for how many accounts report a balance (optimal, only one) - Total utilization (all of your limits, divided by total of balances), and the percent of utilization on each account.

Nice job - feels great to not have CC debt.

Whatever shows up on the statement is what will report to the credit bureaus - So go back and see the dates of previous statements so you can know when to have the balance you seek.  This can get tricky as you might have to make more than one payment a month.  I always PIF (now I do that I know better) - but if I use it again that month I have to pay it off b4 the statement date, at least a couple of days.

You should get some serious points since all 3 were high balances 

PS: Congrats on your first post.

Booner

[MarineVietVet]

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@Booner72 wrote:

For max FICO pointage, ONE account should have a very small balance 1-9% of it's limit.  So if you have a 1000.00 limit leave 10-90 dollars.  Easy fix - just go charge something.

FICO scores utilization for how many accounts report a balance (optimal, only one) - Total utilization (all of your limits, divided by total of balances), and the percent of utilization on each account.

Nice job - feels great to not have CC debt.

Whatever shows up on the statement is what will report to the credit bureaus - So go back and see the dates of previous statements so you can know when to have the balance you seek.  This can get tricky as you might have to make more than one payment a month.  I always PIF (now I do that I know better) - but if I use it again that month I have to pay it off b4 the statement date, at least a couple of days.

You should get some serious points since all 3 were high balances 

PS: Congrats on your first post.

Booner

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Actually it's total balances divided by total available credit.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

In my dreams, apparently, I replied to this answer.

Thank you very much and thanks also to the other person responding.

A follow-up question to make sure I understand.

A hypothetical situation.

Dec 1 my statement balance shows $1,000.   No additional purchases but on Dec 3rd, I pay $1,000 on-time and my balance is then ZERO and continues ZERO indefinitely..

But around Dec 3-4-5 my balance on all three FICO reports shows up as $1,000,

Jan 3-4-5 my balance shows on all FICO reports as ZERO.

Is this right?

Any help would be appreciated.

I have another question but it will be confusing to put both up in a single thread.

And thanks for the welcome.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In my dreams, apparently, I replied to this answer.

Thank you very much and thanks also to the other person responding.

A follow-up question to make sure I understand.

A hypothetical situation.

Dec 1 my statement balance shows $1,000.   No additional purchases but on Dec 3rd, I pay $1,000 on-time and my balance is then ZERO and continues ZERO indefinitely..

But around Dec 3-4-5 my balance on all three FICO reports shows up as $1,000,

Jan 3-4-5 my balance shows on all FICO reports as ZERO.

Is this right?

Any help would be appreciated.

I have another question but it will be confusing to put both up in a single thread.

And thanks for the welcome.

---

This is all correct For most cards it's the statement balance that is reported to the CRA's. That means when you pull your reports on December 3-4-5 it will reflect the December1st $1,000 balance on your statement.

And then because you kept the balances at zero and that was reported on the January statement your January 3-4-5 reports also show zero.

Just remember that it's the reported balances that are used to calculate utilization and what show on your reports.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

Again, thanks. I started sometime back completely ignorant and naive.  Now I've made progress on naive, but barely scratched the surface of ignorant.  I will start anew with my next question.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Again, thanks. I started sometime back completely ignorant and naive.  Now I've made progress on naive, but barely scratched the surface of ignorant.  I will start anew with my next question.

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I seem to visit those 2 places quite often myself. 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".