For Transunion Fico score, is it better to have 0% credit utilization or between 1%-9% on one card

[eedward]

I'm trying to bump my Transunion score up 5-10 points (it's my middle score, and will likely remain so until I close on my mortgage).  I currently have 2 credit card accounts at 0% credit utilization and 3 student loan accounts within monthly payments. When I look at my MyFico Transunion Credit Report, it states that Accounts with Balances is hurting my score (the 3 student loan accounts--surprised they are considered in the same category as my credit card accounts, but they are), while Low Credit Usage (0%) is helping my score.  However, I've read that having between 1%-9% on one of your credit cards (I again now have $0 balance on both cards) will raise your score.  Again I ask because I need to raise my score by 5-10 points.  Would it be better to get something on one of the cards and have it report as, say, a 3% credit utilization, or is this a pointless strategy?  Thanks for any help understanding this.

[llecs]

I've never tinkered with the numbers when loans were included. We tell folks to pay all balances to $0 except for one and get one to report between 1% and 9%. That's because all $0 balances will result in a ding. Conversely, having most of your reported TLs (loans included) reporting a non-$0 balance can hurt a little too. Because of that, I'd guess that if you added a balance to one of your two CCs then there really wouldn't be much benefit, if at all because most of your TLs will report a balance anyway due to the loans. If you have time, you can always play with it to see if there's any benefit for having a few bucks report on one of the two CCs.

[Calster]

IIecs,

Is that 1-9% of that card or 1-9% on one card of all revolving credt available. 

[Shogun]

Best bump would be to have one card at less than 9% and the others at 0.