Util question - what is more score-friendly?

[Anonymous]

I know everyone talks about 1 card reporting < 9% util being the most optimal for your score.

However, I'm wondering between the following two scenarios, what would yield a higher score:

• One card reporting <= 30% util
• Two or three cards reporting 1% util

I noticed a 6 point jump on my EQ today simply because of a $5 balance getting paid off on one of my cards.  What's funny is when I paid a card down that had a $3k balance down to $500, I only got a 2 point jump.  So I figured the "one card < 30%" is the better option during my holiday shopping phase but just wanted to make sure. 

[Lemmus]

...unless you are planning an app spree or a new loan, why worry about things like optimizing util ratio during the xmas season?

...to address your question, afaik FICO 08 considers utilization on both total CL available and individual CL available in their calcs 

[Anonymous]

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@Lemmus wrote:

...unless you are planning an app spree or a new loan, why worry about things like optimizing util ratio during the xmas season?

...to address your question, afaik FICO 08 considers utilization on both total CL available and individual CL available in their calcs 

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Primarily because one of my recent CLI decline reasons on one of my cards has been that my util climbed too high in the last six months.  Knowing that a creditor has visibility in six months of util motivates me to keep my util reporting low and in turn giving me an optimal score for my next round of SP CLI requests.