Whats better for score, one card with high util or several with low?

[Anonymous]

^ huh lol

[takeshi74]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have about 5 cards that I have balances on, overall my utilization is about 24%.  I am hoping for a nice CLI with NFCU, they have a balance transfer option that is attractive so I am considering putting all of my balances on the one card which will likely put that utilization at 70% or so.  Am I better off in terms of FICO to go that route or spread the balances over these several cards? 

---

Why are you worried about score?  Either way you'd need to pay down your balances before apping.

---

@Mattopotamus wrote:

On paper it sounds nice only having a single card with a balance, but it is always better to spread the utilization over multiple cards if it means keeping a single card below 30%

---

Number of balances is a smaller factor than revolving utilization.  That's why number of balances is part of the optimizing utilization recommendation for when apping.  Worry about it when your revolving utilization is low and you're looking to eke out addtional points.

[Anonymous]

If we are only talking about this in terms of FICO then you may not want to transfer. You need to think about both your overall utilization and your per card utilization. I wouldn't reccommend bumbing one card up to 70%. Here's a pretty good explanation of how that works: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/balance-transfer-affects-...

Again, the answer above is assuming you care more about FICO than paying extra interest.

[sillykitty1]

Anecdotal evidence here ....

I have near 100% utilization on one card $19K/$20K,  near 50% on another $7K/$15K, and a few balances of < 20% on a few other cards, but a total of 12% or so overall.  My TU is over 800, and EX is in the 770's.  So you can have high individual card utilization, and balances on other cards, and keep a high score.  As long as your overall utilization is still low and you have a strong CR otherwise (installment, mortgages, AAOA etc), IME.

[Anonymous]

If you have no reason to look for new credit, do what saves money in the coming months. A great offer is in store be it surprise BT checks or new product preapprovals.

[Thomas_Thumb]

---

@sillykitty1 wrote:

Anecdotal evidence here ....

I have near 100% utilization on one card $19K/$20K,  near 50% on another $7K/$15K, and a few balances of < 20% on a few other cards, but a total of 12% or so overall.  My TU is over 800, and EX is in the 770's.  So you can have high individual card utilization, and balances on other cards, and keep a high score.  As long as your overall utilization is still low and you have a strong CR otherwise (installment, mortgages, AAOA etc), IME.

---

No doubt you are talking about Fico 08 scores.

I'd be quite interested how you score on EQ Fico score 5 (Fico 04) in particular and Fico mortgage scores in general.

My experience is EQ Fico 04 dings score rather severely for "high" individual card utilization and a large percentage/number of cards reporting a balance - even if AG UT is held low. Really, all mortgage scoring models are less lenient than Fico 08 when it comes to a high #/% of cards reporting a balance.