can I let a 0 balance report

[morganirish]

Wondering if I let all of my cc's report 0 balance if this could hurt my score? 

[Jazzzy]

Hello...it seems that different credit reporting agencies differ on what they like to see. There have been reports that EQ will ding a few points for all zero balances, while it is said that TU likes zero balances. I have not seen a definitive answer.

You may want to read a bit on the credit card forum. Posters there have tweaked their balances to see what effect it may have. It does appear that the point loss or gain is minimal.

[Uborrow-Upay]

Here's a thread link discussing that.  Look about halfway down the page for the graphic.  Note that this chart from TU takes away points for all ccs reporting zeroes if you're below a certain score, but appears to add points for the zeroes if you're above a certain score.

Whew!

The $0 reporting on all cards question is a persistent one, and as LynetteM says, arguably there is no definitive answer.  But there have been lots of test dummies, me being one of them.  My score dropped when I tried it, just a few points (I think it was 6) but it did drop.  Came back quickly, though.

Wanna be a test dummy?

[Jovian]

Looks like I will be a test dummy!  My score DROPPED about 20 points when my utilization went up too high, around 75%.  I went from 644 to 620s.  I just zeroed out all of my credit cards, so we'll see what happens.  The "what if" calculator says I should increase to 640s to 670s within a month, we'll see how accurate it is!

[Uborrow-Upay]

Way to go, Jovian! 

(The anticipation just kills ya, doesn't it?)

Let us know!

[haulingthescoreup]

I lost points on all three (this was back when we had EX) when my scores were in the 720-730 range. I lost on EQ but gained on TU once I was in the 760's, as noted on the linked thread above.

[marty56]

---

@LynetteM wrote:

Hello...it seems that different credit reporting agencies differ on what they like to see. There have been reports that EQ will ding a few points for all zero balances, while it is said that TU likes zero balances. I have not seen a definitive answer.

---

EQ - 3 for 0% reporting, TU + 10 for 0%.

I would do a 0% baseline first.  LOL its always easy to allow a balance to report.

[morganirish]

Thanks everyone.  My scores are EQ-707 and TU-724, I may just let five bucks report and leave it alone.  I just don't want to go back below 700, yikes!