topic Re: Credit card balances affecting FICO score in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Re: Credit card balances affecting FICO score

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2015 17:59:35 GMT

I have a five credit cards(CCs); four have a zero balance. I'm at 44% credit utilization on the card carrying a balance, after making a $350.00 payment. With that said, my Equifax credit score has only increased 5 points(after the payment), which is a little frustrating. Am I on the right track of boosting my credit score by maintaining 0 balances on all of my credit cards and keeping a balance on one? I do realize that my credit utilization needs to be below 30% for optimal results. What is the best way to boost my credit score by implementing the credit utilization method?

Re: Credit card balances affecting FICO score

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2015 18:01:24 GMT

Keep it at 9% or less. The best would be 1% reporting on only 1 card.

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a five credit cards(CCs); four have a zero balance. I'm at 44% credit utilization on the card carrying a balance, after making a $350.00 payment. With that said, my Equifax credit score has only increased 5 points(after the payment), which is a little frustrating. Am I on the right track of boosting my credit score by maintaining 0 balances on all of my credit cards and keeping a balance on one? I do realize that my credit utilization needs to be below 30% for optimal results. What is the best way to boost my credit score by implementing the credit utilization method?

Re: Credit card balances affecting FICO score

dman23 — Mon, 18 May 2015 03:06:10 GMT

I've been keeping my credit utilization at 2%. I PIF on 2 of my 3 cards before statement and 98% on the other. I haven't tried any other percentages, but I do know having a zero balance on all your cards hurts. I experienced that today. I have a Barclays Card and my score was updated today and it dropped 17 points to 717.

I purchased my Transunion report today and it showed 717. The better comparison was from Experian. I had purchased report on 4/24 and my score was 734. I just purchased score now at my score is 717. The only difference is that the 717 shows zero balances on all 3 credit cards. That sucks.

I'll have to see if I can find out when these companies report the balances so this doesn't happen again.

Re: Credit card balances affecting FICO score

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 01:34:31 GMT

I've had my best scores at 1% utilization and it was on 3 cards. However, unless you're getting ready to app for new credit, auto loan, mortgage, etc. trying to keep it at 1% every month is pretty pointless and very labor-intensive. So I strive for under 10% (over 6 cards) which is my avg monthly credit card spend and then PIF by the due date.