@Anonymous wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Fico 8 classic score has remained at 850 during the 1.5 year timeframe. So, although there is no information here to tell you how many cards reporting is optimal, it does indicate reporting balances on multiple cards will not inhibit ability to build score. It also indicates no inherant penalty associated with reporting a balance on multiple cards.
I do suspect, frequency of card use (reporting non zero balances) impacts what % of open cards can report a balance in a given month before a score drop.
For those with a dirty report, the results may not be the same.
I posted in another utilization thread about this topic previously, but the short of it is...
I have tax liens reporting and no other derogatories or lates ever.
I only have 3 cards.
I take a hit when 2 of 3 cards report (6-8 points), I take a bigger hit when 3 of 3 cards report.
I get the points back when I go back to two then one reporting.
The most sensitive score to this seems to be EQ 08, the least sensitive seems to be TU 08.
What does this mean?
It means I can put lipstick on the pig if I want to apply for credit and get 6-16 points higher when my report is optimized.
I can get 720s-730s FICO 08s with all cards reporting a balance and utilization under 9%
I can get 740 across the board FICO 08s with a single card reporting
How long have you maintained all three cards reporting small balances, for any string of months?
@Anonymous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
How long have you maintained all three cards reporting small balances, for any string of months?
7 years,
7 years including all the last 12 months, or at what point were you testing 3, 2, 1, 2, 3 reporting?
If all have been reporting for 7 years, where's the point they were not all reporting?
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:The quick hit associated with one card reporting gets a lot of press and the 5 to 15 point boost many profiles see has been documented. No argument with that.
However, minimal reporting actually inhibits ability to effectively build credit payment history over time. This holds true regardless of the profile being old/new, thick/thin or clean/dirty. Quite a few posters with no need for new credit short term have adopted the tactic of reporting a small balance on only one card every month as a hard rule. This is not wise.
Many single card posters are actually using multiple cards each month and have significant charges which they PIF. If new credit is NOT needed short term it is best to allow these balances and subsequent payments to report. That is helpful in establishing a solid payment history and showing credit worthiness.
Optimize for score when needed for new credit but otherwise show credit use to build history.
Sorry if I got a bit off topic.
How can you possibly make that assertion TT? 
.
A report of $0 is still a reported payment and positive history. There is no difference FICO wise whether you report $0 or some non-zero number when we're talking in the future. Revolving utilization is instant in time only from exhaustive testing by a bunch of people and not a single credible source has said differently to my knowledge, FICO 04 or FICO 8.
Most lenders to my understanding report high balance as highest balance during the statement period, not highest reported balance. There are some exceptions, but it's not the rule. Also, payments made are reported to all bureaus; yes not every lender does this, and FICO doesn't make use of it, but if it's on the credit report, it's a good bet lenders will absolutely use it for their purposes.
You don't really have to go much beyond my Chase and Penfed approvals for 20K+ when my aggregate credit limit was only 34.6K with a high CL of 9K previously, and I've been at pretty minimal reported utilization for a more than a year while a mortgage was possibly in the wind. The vast majority of my balances over time have reported $0: I know this is only a single anecdotal report, but there's plenty more if you look for them.
I'm all for the theory of just let the balances fall where they will when you're not applying for something (because it's irrelevant in a future FICO score and it takes effort to maintain), and I'm absolutely a supporter of if you get a high balance, damn right let that report and show everyone who looks at your report that you can pay it; however, from a pure FICO perspective it doesn't matter one iota, and frankly lenders are smarter than that.
@Revelate wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:The quick hit associated with one card reporting gets a lot of press and the 5 to 15 point boost many profiles see has been documented. No argument with that.
However, minimal reporting actually inhibits ability to effectively build credit payment history over time. This holds true regardless of the profile being old/new, thick/thin or clean/dirty. Quite a few posters with no need for new credit short term have adopted the tactic of reporting a small balance on only one card every month as a hard rule. This is not wise.
Many single card posters are actually using multiple cards each month and have significant charges which they PIF. If new credit is NOT needed short term it is best to allow these balances and subsequent payments to report. That is helpful in establishing a solid payment history and showing credit worthiness.
Optimize for score when needed for new credit but otherwise show credit use to build history.
Sorry if I got a bit off topic.
How can you possibly make that assertion TT?
A report of $0 is still a reported payment and positive history. There is no difference FICO wise whether you report $0 or some non-zero number when we're talking in the future. Revolving utilization is instant in time only from exhaustive testing by a bunch of people and not a single credible source has said differently to my knowledge, FICO 04 or FICO 8.
Most lenders to my understanding report high balance as highest balance during the statement period, not highest reported balance. There are some exceptions, but it's not the rule. Also, payments made are reported to all bureaus; yes not every lender does this, and FICO doesn't make use of it, but if it's on the credit report, it's a good bet lenders will absolutely use it for their purposes.
You don't really have to go much beyond my Chase and Penfed approvals for 20K+ when my aggregate credit limit was only 34.6K with a high CL of 9K previously, and I've been at pretty minimal reported utilization for a more than a year while a mortgage was possibly in the wind. The vast majority of my balances over time have reported $0: I know this is only a single anecdotal report, but there's plenty more if you look for them.
I'm all for the theory of just let the balances fall where they will when you're not applying for something (because it's irrelevant in a future FICO score and it takes effort to maintain), and I'm absolutely a supporter of if you get a high balance, damn right let that report and show everyone who looks at your report that you can pay it; however, from a pure FICO perspective it doesn't matter one iota, and frankly lenders are smarter than that.
There are people posting in Credit Cards who had most all of their cards at zero balances, started letting some significant amount post and carry on some cards that were zero before because they had to, and certain bank algorithms tripped CLD on them. On calling the CSR, they often were able to get it worked out, with the CSR saying "I don't understand what happened", which I don't find surprising.
Letting balances report builds up a tolerance by the algorithms at various banks to understand that the balances are a normal part of the profile, not a shock.
And, while it's been well proven that driving number of cards reporting to zero does pop the score, what I haven't heard is someone taking the low utilization and letting more cards report, letting the score ride with that and seeing if the score stabilizes, over several months. That takes too long, doesn't provide a quick topic for a new thread Those who have done that, let more cards report, and see no change, get cut down in this thread because their file isn't dirty. pfft.
Then, the shorthand response to a newbie "How can I improve my score" is boiled down to "all cards but one at zero" with no explanation of the consequences.
Now that your mortgage is behind you, you would be in a good position to try letting more cards report small balances and either disprove or prove the theory that over time the file can absorb and perhaps improve with more activity on more cards.
Revolving utilization is instant in time only.
That's been beaten to death over the years, not sure where this theory of utillization over time mattering with respect to FICO came from though I could hazard a couple of guesses.
CC users + CLD, we never get the full story. I've popped major balances on cards and paid them post-report, zero zip swabo CLD.