Thanks Hauling. It's a good thing you clarified negatives with "on his report" 
. He's a good guy - so both lists are pretty short!
His negative is:
You recently opened a new account. (2 months ago.)
His positives are:
You have no missed payments on your credit accounts.
You have an established credit history. (Oldest: 20 yrs 10 mos.; AAofA 5 yrs)
You have limited use of available credit (1%)
You’ve shown recent use of your credit cards
His EQ FICO is 781.
@Anonymous wrote:On the simulator, when I try paying down any amount on this CC balance, I cannot get a score change. Any strategies you’d recommend?
I’m stumped…..
* On the simulator first pay the whole balance as a one time payment
and note the generated score range.
* Next pay all but $1 and note score range.
* Leave a 5% balance payment and note the score range.
If all ranges are identical compute the score again using a 2.5% balance
If still no difference compute using 1.25%. Also compute using 3.75%.
Sooner or later you will see a difference in score ranges. Then you can plug in small amounts higher and lower until you determine the (projected) sweet spot.
Once you have determined the projected sweet spot you are ready to determine your actual sweet spot.
Pay your actual credit card balance down to an amount 50% higher than the projected sweet spot break point.
Each month leave a balance half as much as the month before and note Fico scores. Once you observe a score change in either direction you can figure an amount to allow to report the next month to get a more accurate sweet spot amount. Once you know the actual sweet spot amount, convert the amount to a percentage of individual card utility and overall utility.
On the other hand, here is what I am going to do in November.
A 0% BT will expire. It is my only credit card balance. I will pay all but $1,000 balance. I will throw Chase a bone and allow the bank to make a few dollars interest. I will pay $500 then $250 for the two subsequent months. I will keep checking scores and tweaking the balances until I have determined my own sweet spot. Once I have determined the sweet spot balance on a particular credit card, I will note the utilization on that individual card also taking note of overall usage.
By The Way:
This forum is one of the few places where we can discuss things like this.
Things like what? 
Er.... How about extreme obsessions involving miniscule details concerning small differences in numbers that probably won't ever mean that much in the real world? 
Since I will again have 800 Fico scores when my balance is again bellow $1,000 it really doesn't matter what my sweet spot is. I do want to know for sure what is the best percentage for me to allow to report. That way I can chime in with my own 2 cents whenever minimum reporting balances are discussed.
The sim is like an exciting, but not-very-trustworthy stranger. It will whisper enticing promises, but those promises don't necessarily come true.
It might well be a question of time, then. I tend to go with the middle figure of the score range, and it's interesting that using this logic, it's projecting 791. (mid-point of 781 and 801) Maybe he'll get a small boost next month when the newest account hits 3 months?
But again, with scores as high as his and so little to manipulate, I'm think the projections are in the sweet nothings category. Which also means his score could have better changes!
Just out of curiosity, did you run the sim with adding a mortgage? (I think that's one of the options.)
It might well be a question of time, then. I tend to go with the middle figure of the score range, and it's interesting that using this logic, it's projecting 791. (mid-point of 781 and 801) Maybe he'll get a small boost next month when the newest account hits 3 months?
But again, with scores as high as his and so little to manipulate, I'm think the projections are in the sweet nothings category. Which also means his score could have better changes!
Just out of curiosity, did you run the sim with adding a mortgage? (I think that's one of the options.)
beamMEup wrote:On his $10,000 card, the sweet spot was between 2-5% - predicting 791-831 as a potential FICO range. So we reported $462 or 4.6%. No change at all. FICO still at 781.
Next month, I’ll shoot for reporting half of the current balance (that would be $230) as you suggested, and see if that will give me my 10 point (or whatever) bump. Thanks for the thoughtful process. If we’re lucky, that’ll happen before the mortgage hits – keeping my fingers crossed.
CreditAble - Thanks for your two cents worth – priceless to me!
A few years back when I was actively tweaking the sweet spot, $462 was definitely to high for me. On a $5,000 and $10.000 cards $200 was pretty much the max balance for best Fico score. Minimum balance was about $150. The score definitely didn't favor a balance under $100.
I was using mostly $5.000, $10,000, and $29,000 cards with total CLs about $50,000 - $70,000. If your revolving limits are in a similar range and you want to play "my numbers" (and yours), you can try $230 the first month and try $150 the next.
If you only have time to play one number as a "Hail Mary" pass I would simply go with $200. The point is if you cut too low you won't have a score any lower than you have right now at $462. You would just miss the narrow band of a slight score jump, and still probably have the same FICO. On a $10,000 card I believe that the sweet spot is probably below $300 depending upon the overall utilization variable.
You might want to read THIS_THREAD for additional insight. Generally I was trying to explain to other Forum members that there was a small FICO score bump within a small band that was greater than $0 and less than 9% utility, which produced a score bump greater than simply having 9%utility. Another FICO member named "the band" a "sweet spot". I was trying to point out that the <9% conventional wisdom was not something that was carved in stone. The thread evolved into an amount verses percentage discussion. Since I had never computed my actual percentage utility all I could offer was "my amounts". Some members rightfully pointed out that the best balance for a highest Fico score was a percentage rather than an amount. I did realize that a person having only one credit card with a $500 CL, certainly wouldn't have a $200 sweet spot.
The fact still remains that "<9%" is still not the optimal balance to have reporting. I hope that you find the percentage that is best for you. It is an elusive number and might vary with different credit profiles in addition to being dependent upon utility. I commend you for doing the trial and error experiment. It was the score simulator that alerted me to the possible existence of the sweet spot in the first place. It was trial and error that produced my own number that gave me my extra points for these past 8 years or so.