topic How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on? in Credit Cards

How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 21:57:39 GMT

I've read a lot of conflicting information on this. Most recently I've heard it's best to let one card report a small balance (between1-9%) but I've also heard that cards at $0 probably won't report at all. Should I let tiny balances report on all my cards, so they are still being reported? Or should I pay all my cards in full before the statement cuts, except 1?

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

Dubious — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 22:45:47 GMT

For maximizing FICO purposes, one card with a balance is the best option.

Major banks (BOA, Discover, etc) will still generate a statement and report to the CRAs when the balance is 0, so that is not a problem. From what I can tell from your sig, you shouldn't have a problem with any of your cards from this regard.

Having all cards report a balance will probably kill your score. What you can do is rotate which one reports every so often so they all show some activity at some point.

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 22:49:57 GMT

@Dubious Thank you, that was very helpful!

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

oscar_actuary — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 23:11:48 GMT

@Dubious wrote:
Having all cards report a balance will probably kill your score. .

I am eager to see what happens when I go from circa 4 of 8 to 11 of 13 reporting a balance

Score about 730s with the former. Utilization though is down with the addional cards, but AAoA took a big hit as well.

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

HeilFico — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 01:59:08 GMT

I just made the mistake of letting 90% of my tradelines report a small bal this month. (Under $200 most under $50) This was just to give them all traction and because I always pay before the statement hits. I wanted to try waiting until they cut for once. My score dropped by 40 points! I just paid them all off today. I have three tradelines that should update by the beginning of next month. The rest will update towards the latter part of the month. Hopefully no AA because of my stupidity!

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

oscar_actuary — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:45:53 GMT

uggg.

I thought I was being clever to put a utility or a charity on 8 of them, while our default cards are two others.

I get the feeling I'll get in the habit of prepaying the statement going forward.

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

Dubious — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:50:19 GMT

@oscar_actuary wrote:
uggg.
I thought I was being clever to put a utility or a charity on 8 of them, while our default cards are two others.

I get the feeling I'll get in the habit of prepaying the statement going forward.

What is your new score?

Re: How many cards should you leave a (small) balance on?

oscar_actuary — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 17:45:42 GMT

up 3 to 738.

I still have 3 cards that have not had a statements, 2 will have balances

But I have had balances on 10 for at least two full statements (all but 2 are PIF each time, the other 2 are 0%)

So, maybe the straw will break the camel when these other 2 cut. Or maybe 3 of the prior new ones that are two months old have not hit the report?

Nevertheless, my report said I am dinged a bit for AAoA reasons, whereas before it was Utility reason. Given the payments I've made lately (nothing huge), I would guess that has more to do with increasing total lines that reduced debt (better Utility now,but lower AAoA). But in all, I just dont' know how much lag trime there is in the reporting of credit accounts.

I'm wating a couple more months before I go pay for a full report to tell me more.