General Consensus

[Anonymous]

I have seen some conflicting advice on here. Is it the general consensus that you should have ONE credit card reporting a balance with the rest having a $0 balance?

Currently, I have three CCs reporting a balance below 9% and thought that was the way to go.

Anyone?

[Junejer]

rengler, I don't know if we can come to a consensus. I say that for my "bucket", my scores tend to drop 10-20 points for allowing a second card to report a balance--any balance. Many others have the same experience, yet others report no decrease for a second card reporting a balance.

[Anonymous]

And you want to follow the 'less than half' rule of util:  less than half of your revolving credit cards should show a balance.  So if you have 3-4 cards, that would mean only one card with a balance, 5-6 cards would mean no more than two show a balance, etc.

[marty56]

I'm with Byrdman on this.  One card for me is the best.  If it is based on score bucket, I'm in the major derog score bucket if that helps you.

[haulingthescoreup]

TU gets me for two cards with balances. EX and EQ get me for 3 cards. (This is for 14 open accounts, of which 11 are CC's.)

I'm in the same bucket as marty, we think, but I think I've got more open accounts, which gives me a bit more wiggle room.