I have 6 cc, of which all 6 are reporting >100% utilization. i have just paid 4 down to 8-9%, but the other 2 are showing 98% utilization. I am going to try to get these remaining 2 down to 50% in 2 weeks. my question is, i've read that less than half of your accounts should have 0 balances, but then i've also read that sometimes you get penalized for having a 0 balance, and to make sure that they report 1-9% balance. so, should i pay those 4 down to 0% or keep them at 9%? also, in this case, would it make a difference if i had the remaining 2 down to 9%? if it doesn't, it would save me a considerable amount of money. i did the fico score similator for both equifax and transunion, and it says i owe a total of 4900, and when i put in if i paid $2000 of my balances in 1 month, it showed a increase in score, but then when i put in if i paid $2500, it showed a bigger boost, but when i upped the amount between 3000-4500, it showed the same score range as 2500. any thoughts? b/c if i only paid 2500, that's 50% utlization, but paying 4500 is 1-9% utilization but it showed the same score range. i wasn't sure if paying 2500 would give me the lower end of the range and paying 4500 would give me the higher end of the range. sorry if this is confusing. i know that the simulator isn't exact and is just an estimator, but i need all the help i can get right now. i just have to increase my score within the next month, and i know most of my cc, just reported to the cra's, so i have to wait until next month around this time to see an impact, so i'll need to have maximum impact. thanks for any help
