topic Re: Credit Card Utilization spread in Credit Cards

Credit Card Utilization spread

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:02:35 GMT

I have one CC that I use most and thus carries an avg monthly balance of $3000. My other 2 CCs have zero balance. Is this weighting of balance onto one CC negatively impacting my FICO? Is it better to spread out the usage and balance between the three cards ($2,000/each card)? Thanks!

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

MidnightVoice — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:05:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Is it better to spread out the usage and balance between the three cards ($2,000/each card)? Thanks!

yes

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=32919&jump=true

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

Creditaddict — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:09:07 GMT

depends on CL's of the other cards that you are going to have 2k on.

you might take a score hit for having 1 card with high util, but you are getting a score boost for only have 1 of your cards report a balance.

if you spread it out, you might not get a ding for high util, but you will get a ding for having all accounts reporting balances.

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:25:07 GMT

Midnight- Doesn't it also matter how many accounts one has? If you only have three accounts I was under the impression you only wanted one to report... right?

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

Creditaddict — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:30:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Midnight- Doesn't it also matter how many accounts one has? If you only have three accounts I was under the impression you only wanted one to report... right?

That's what I would say.

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

smallfry — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:33:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Midnight- Doesn't it also matter how many accounts one has? If you only have three accounts I was under the impression you only wanted one to report... right?

It depends. Do you have any installment accounts in addition to the 3 CC's? If you don't you will need to let just 1 card report a balance each period. If you don't care about defeating one of the purposes of using credit by getting some float just pay the card under 9% of the credit limit. Your only other choice would be to get 2 more cards. 1 really won't help your accounts with balances if CC's are your only open tradelines.

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:07:48 GMT

Creditaddict wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
Midnight- Doesn't it also matter how many accounts one has? If you only have three accounts I was under the impression you only wanted one to report... right?

That's what I would say.

This is what you do when you have your balances under control. But if you have a maxed-out card, that's bad for your scores, so it might be better to spread it out a bit.

Canoworms, welcome to the forums!

Do you pay off that $3000 every month, or are you carrying all or part of that over every month?

If you pay it off every month, pay all but $10 of it about five days before your statement posts. That way, $10 will report instead of $3K, and that will do wonders for your util.

If you're carrying a balance, you should concentrate on knocking that down. For maybe two months, use a different card, but don't let your total balances increase. Only charge things that you would otherwise pay cash for, and that you have the money to pay off.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-04-2009 04:07 PM

Re: Credit Card Utilization spread

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:26:08 GMT

Most generally, yes. What is the credit limit of the card with a $3000 balance?