CreditAble, first let me say that I don't generally just say that someone is wrong, without first fully understanding where they are getting their point of view.
CreditAble wrote:
@marty56 wrote:I loose points for 0% or > 9% total util reporting or more then 1 card reporting a balance.
I understand that the greater then 9% figure would be the standard point drop for increased utilization.
I also understand that 0% loses points. Are you saying that your score goes up when carrying any balance above $0 even one dollar? Does it then stay constant until it starts to drop at 9%?
In other words is it your experience that all balances (above $0) no matter how small will generate the same score that you have with 8% utilization?
Now, let me give you an example. When I recently opened my first revolving account (after being off the grid for a few years), I allowed $383 dollars to report on the card. Without knowing the CL, should I gain points or lose points? How would one know, if there is not proper criteria for measuring? The answer is that I lost 49 points, because that represented a util of 76%. The following month, I allowed $27 to report (5% util) and I gained 71 points. The month after that, I allowed $20 to report and the score remained unchanged. So, from my experience, my util being under 9%, kept me at the same score for two months.
Starting Score: 469ByrdMan wrote:
CreditAble, first let me say that I don't generally just say that someone is wrong, without first fully understanding where they are getting their point of view.
Thankyou for your kind response and I hope that Cheddar will read this response as well. I appreciate his efforts to explain things also.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea but let me try to explain where I am coming from.
When I started my credit building adventure this board didn't exist. I was an "lovepizza" without a FICO forum. I lurked for hours in credit forums and read blogs upon blogs, many of which were written by totally ignorant (credit wise) people. I read every word I could find about FICO and the credit bureaus.
One of the first things I discovered was a simple way to raise a score 6- 10 points. That was even after I fully understood utilization. I was preaching 7-8% utilization before this board was even formed. I was piffing and carrying $0 balances on all but one credit card over 7 years ago. What you guys teach here is not what you hear on other boards. That is why I am here.
I would not have had to work so hard to learn what I now know, largely through trial and error, if this board had existed eight years ago.
I have learned something that I thought some people might have liked to know about in the FICO forum. It has absolutely nothing to do with utilization in the conventional since.
I fully understand utilization. When a balance goes up, utilization goes up. When a balance goes down, utilization goes down. When Utilization goes up score goes down. I am speaking of a situation in which utilization going down also causes the score down. It has nothing to do with conventional discussion of utilization.
I don't usually discuss utilization percentages. It is not because I don't understand how they work. It is because y'all do so well explaining things without my 2 cents being pitched in. I really would like to make the point that I really really absolutely positively know what I am talking about when it comes to the balance lower than 9% rule of thumb.
There is an anomaly that nobody talks about and I can prove what I am saying. People who PIF before the statement drops, might be able to pick up an extra 6-10 points. I humbly submit that somebody should check out what I have been saying.
6-10 points and it has nothing to do with utilization.
Please forgive my bluntness. It is late, I am really tired. If one wants to read my recent threads on the subject and try an experiment of his own, his scores most likely will go up.
#1. Leave a $50 balance on one card one month.
Check score.
#2. Leave a $100 balance on a different card the next month.
Check score.
#3. Leave a $150 balance on a different card the next month.
Check score.
#4. Keep increasing $50 until the score increases by 6-10 points. When the score jumps up, that is the minimum balance to cary on only one card every month.
Please note that the threshold could occur well below 1% of overall utilization. The credit limit of the individual card might possibly be below 2% of individual utilization.
The $50 increments would be appropriate for cards with $4,000-$29,000 credit limits. Total revolving credit lines should be above $50,000. For lower limits use lower increments.
Percentages obviously count somehow since the minimum amount certainly has to be (much) lower than 9% of total utilization.
Did it work for me? Yes.
Did it work for others that I told about it? Yes.
Will it work for everyone? I have absolutely no idea.
Why does it work like that? I don't know that either.
The people in this forum are very astute. Couldn't someone just check out what I am saying for himself. Then I won't have to mention it any more.
Here is another idea. Believe it or not the score simulator actually predicts a score range drop below a certain minimum balance. Anyone with a balance can just use the lump sum pay off calculator and see what I am talking about.
I know that the simulator is just a toy and is not meant to provide very relevant results. In the case of the minimum balance it pretty much gave me a decent ballpark number to test as my minimum amount. That leads me to believe that the minimum amount is some how related, possibly as a percentage, of the Total Revolving Credit Available.
CreditAble wrote:6-10 points and it has nothing to do with utilization.
Please forgive my bluntness. It is late, I am really tired. If one wants to read my recent threads on the subject and try an experiment of his own, his scores most likely will go up.
#1. Leave a $50 balance on one card one month.
Check score.
#2. Leave a $100 balance on a different card the next month.
Check score.
#3. Leave a $150 balance on a different card the next month.
Check score.
#4. Keep increasing $50 until the score increases by 6-10 points. When the score jumps up, that is the minimum balance to cary on only one card every month.
Please note that the threshold could occur well below 1% of overall utilization. The credit limit of the individual card might possibly be below 2% of individual utilization.
The $50 increments would be appropriate for cards with $4,000-$29,000 credit limits. Total revolving credit lines should be above $50,000. For lower limits use lower increments.
Percentages obviously count somehow since the minimum amount certainly has to be (much) lower than 9% of total utilization.
CreditAble, thanks for taking time to post this. That said, what you posted has everything to do with % utilization. The % is what is driving this whole phenomenon.
Others, Cobra comes to mind for one, state that they get another score increase under a certain util %, like under 3% or something like that. What you are saying, in effect, is that you get an increase by finding a sweet-spot utilization %, just as long as it's under the 9%. By your own admission, you acknowledge that an ideal CL would be $4,000-$29,000 make it work properly. If it had nothing to do with utilization, then the CLs wouldn't matter.
CreditAble, I am not being argumentative, just pointing out that, in the end, it's all util %.
@marty56 wrote:
My experience:
0% - loose points.
1% - ($33) gain points (current score)
4% - ($100) gain points (current score)
9% - ($2500) gain points (current score)
20% - ($5000) loose points.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
Is it your experience that the "(current score)" is always more or less identical for 1%, 4%,and 9%?
I suspect that the percentage that comes into play for minimum balances, might be somewhere between 0% and 2%.
I have been using my minimum balance as a threshold example without stating my Total Credit Available. The $150-$200 minimum balance worked when my total available credit was about $10,000. It also seemed to work with total available credit above $60,000. I haven't verified it with my current higher Total Available Credit.
I am going to restate my original contention.
If people who cary only one token balance on a credit card and have more than $10,000 total credit available I might be able to help those people determine a minimum amount to allow to report which might increase their credit scores.
That amount is probably some kind of percentage of something. I suspect that it is a percentage of total credit available. I do not know for sure. I don't think anybody on these boards can know for sure. If anyone wants to experiment, perhaps there will be enough data eventually that a percentage relationship can be determined.
Most likely people with total credit available of $500 or less won't benefit much if any by determining a minimum balance to report. Nine percent of $500 is $45. The minimum balance for maximum FICO score could be around $4 or $5. It is assumed that one would spend that on the ever popular "cup of coffee". I am not so sure that a pack of "chewing gum" would generate the same score however.
People with $20,000 worth of available credit could be a different matter. Nine percent of that amount is $1,800. The minimum balance could very easily fall above $100. A cup of coffee and a pack of chewing gum might not be enough to raise the minimum balance above a score increase threshold.
An easily performed slight adjustment to some credit score management plans could generate an ongoing 6-10 point increase.
@marty56 wrote:
LOL if you really find that you loose points for letting say $1 report, it shouldn't be that hard to allow more debt to report.
That is the " slight adjustment " I mentioned above.
OK fellas,
and this is what happens when you let report $0 after letting report $710 the month before: +36 points 
As ypu can see: there is a steep jump from the last two months!
My high was 711, then Amex reported $2400 of my $3200 limit and every CCC was aiming at me.
Well, they shot me 6 times, but I survived.
Wow, a German hosting site! I'll throw in 5 more points for nerdy coolness. 
And congrats on the rebound.
And congrats on the rebound.