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the changes are reflected whenever the creditors report to the credit bureaus, which varies from creditor to creditor.
% util is the one element of FICO scoring that has no historic memory. As soon as the next month reporting is made, the prior month % util is no longer scored.
You can shoot for monthly fine-tuning of your % util, as that helps you keep your util under constant control. But for purpose of arriving at a FICO score that will be used by a creditor in their credit grantng decisions, getting % util to the ideal about two months before you apply for new credit is the critical time. Now is the time to experiment and find out whether a card reports on the billing due date, or at some later time. Then you can fine-tune util.
Ideal is having all cards below 10% util, with at least half reporting no balance.
Ehh, don't worry about the "too many accounts" bit. In almost every case, there doesn't seem to be a real ding involved.
What's probably happening is that like any normal person, you're waiting for your statements to generate, and then you pay your bill. Unfortunately, that means that the totals of your charges for the month on each card are being reported, and it looks like you have a lot of debt, even though you pay them off immediately.
If you're not getting ready to apply for new credit, the next isn't necessary. But if you are, or if you like fine-tuning your scores, try this:
Go online to each account 3-4 days before the next statement is due. Not the due date, but the date that the statement posts. Pay off all but one or maybe two of your cards each month. Only allow 9% or less of that card's/ those cards' balance/s to remain. Let each card's statement post, showing $0 on the paid-off cards and the minimal figure on the remaining one or two.
THEN go pay off that last balance. It's frighteningly easy to forget to do this, and then you have a late, yikes.
What this does is minimize your util (revolving credit utilization) on your reports, and your scores should benefit accordingly.
It's very nutty, and as I said, it's only useful if you're trying to max your scores, for whatever reason.
This came about because the banks were told to report a balance to the credit bureaus once a month, and they chose to report the balance on the statements in most cases. (Note: HSBC/ Orchard bank cards and US Bank CC's report the balance as of the last business day of the month, but they are distinctly in the minority.) They could have chosen to report the balance remaining, if any, as of the due date, but no.
So it's kinda dumb, but this is the work-around for it if you want to use it.
If each card is below 10%, then overall % util must necessarily be below 10%.
If one card is above 10% util, and yet overall util is below 10%, the overall util is much more important.