Question about utilization/$0 balances.

[Anonymous]

FICO 8's : EX-753, TU-773, EQ-750

All of my credit reports are nearly identical.  The minor differences are as follows: Equifax has one new inquiry added recently (within the last week), EQ and TU have an inquiry about 8-9 months ago.  All of them are only 1 inquiry total.

The one difference between the three is that TransUnion has a balance on my secured card of about $20.  EQ/EX has that same card listed at $0.

Would a $0 balance cause the 20 point difference?  I was surprised at the differences when the reports are almost all identical aside from the inquiries and TU having a $20ish balance.  (I've always had the card reporting a balance, this is the first time it's had a $0 balance)

[Anonymous]

760+ seems to be the magic spot from what I understand with FICO scores.  I realize I'm on that cusp, and I'm hyper vigilant about it right now because I'm about to apply for a mortgage within the next few months.  I want to consistantly have that over 760 as I prepare.  If it means carrying a $10 balance instead of a $0 balance, so be it.  I just want to understand if that's the difference.

[Anonymous]

How many credit cards do you have?  (Including the secure card.)   And of your other cards (not the secure card) how many of them report a balance?

The answers to these two questions will help answer the question you raised, i.e. the scoring impact of one card showing a small balance.

On what date does your secured card report to the three bureaus?  It's likely that when you pulled your reports, it was right around the time the card was reporting.  The card probably had reported to all three with an updated balance, but it just takes an additional 1-2 business days for all three to update their database.  It's not unusual in such a situation for one bureau to have the new updated balance and another bureau doesn't (yet).

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

FICO 8's : EX-753, TU-773, EQ-750

All of my credit reports are nearly identical.  The minor differences are as follows: Equifax has one new inquiry added recently (within the last week), EQ and TU have an inquiry about 8-9 months ago.  All of them are only 1 inquiry total.

The one difference between the three is that TransUnion has a balance on my secured card of about $20.  EQ/EX has that same card listed at $0.

Would a $0 balance cause the 20 point difference?  I was surprised at the differences when the reports are almost all identical aside from the inquiries and TU having a $20ish balance.  (I've always had the card reporting a balance, this is the first time it's had a $0 balance)

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My understanding is that the score is optimized when you have more than 50% of revolving accounts reporting a zero balance, but that it takes a hit if you have all accounts at zero. So you should let one account report with a small balance.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

760+ seems to be the magic spot from what I understand with FICO scores.  I realize I'm on that cusp, and I'm hyper vigilant about it right now because I'm about to apply for a mortgage within the next few months.  I want to consistantly have that over 760 as I prepare.  If it means carrying a $10 balance instead of a $0 balance, so be it.  I just want to understand if that's the difference.

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Those are FICO 8 scores, congratulations for that.

They are not Mortgage scores. You may want to look into the more extensive list of available scores. The Mortgage scoring can be different, they use different weightings of factors.

[Revelate]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

FICO 8's : EX-753, TU-773, EQ-750

All of my credit reports are nearly identical.  The minor differences are as follows: Equifax has one new inquiry added recently (within the last week), EQ and TU have an inquiry about 8-9 months ago.  All of them are only 1 inquiry total.

The one difference between the three is that TransUnion has a balance on my secured card of about $20.  EQ/EX has that same card listed at $0.

Would a $0 balance cause the 20 point difference?  I was surprised at the differences when the reports are almost all identical aside from the inquiries and TU having a $20ish balance.  (I've always had the card reporting a balance, this is the first time it's had a $0 balance)

---

My understanding is that the score is optimized when you have more than 50% of revolving accounts reporting a zero balance, but that it takes a hit if you have all accounts at zero. So you should let one account report with a small balance.

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There have always been a breakpoint under 50% for me.  2/9-3/9 for example when I was still on 9 revolvers; trying to find a lower bound on my current file with 13 open revolving tradelines, was definitely one at 50% though when I went through it this time.  Problem is 2/4 of my current cards report same day... I need a 4th Chase account to really test this .