topic Re: Capital One credit simulator in General Credit Topics

Capital One credit simulator

Carloscda40 — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:07:20 GMT

Maybe I'm missing someting but how is it paying cards down over say 6mos would jump m score more than if I paid them all off?

Re: Capital One credit simulator

JoeRockhead — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:18:04 GMT

Putting aside the fact that the majority of simulators should be considered as for entertainment purposes only, there is such a thing as an all zero score penalty for having all your revolving accounts report a zero balance. Scores can also go down further for "no recent revolving activity" if you continue to pay balances off on all cards where they're always reporting zero.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

Vinjints — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:18:57 GMT

It doesn't and the simulators won't be 100% accurate. They may show a penalty for having zero utilization, though.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

SRT4kid93 — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:20:25 GMT

Time,

In this case The only difference between paying down the cards slowly vs paying off all at once is time.

during this time period, your age metrics improve. Age of youngest account, average age of accounts, etc.

if you passed over a known aging threshold the simulator would have taken that into account as well.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

JoeRockhead — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:39:38 GMT

@SRT4kid93 wrote:
Time,

In this case The only difference between paying down the cards slowly vs paying off all at once is time.

during this time period, your age metrics improve. Age of youngest account, average age of accounts, etc.

if you passed over a known aging threshold the simulator would have taken that into account as well.

While time may be a factor in ageing metrics, it is not the deciding factor here. The two scenarios are paying balances off now, vs paying the balances down over time. The two main contributing factors to a lower score are:

All Zero Penalty,
No recent revolving activity

Re: Capital One credit simulator

SRT4kid93 — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 19:48:13 GMT

That my fault I didn't realize he was talking about paying every single card down to incur the all zero penalty.

although if he was going to pay them all down to $0, wouldn't he do this in both instances?

so either way he would incur the penalty?

unless he was talking about paying all his cards down to 0 in only 1 of the scenarios.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

Carloscda40 — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 21:43:21 GMT

Thanks for the replys. I was looking into paying all my balances to 0.

Didn't know it was a penaty for having zero balances and the banks would rather see mothly payments.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

ptatohed — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:33:21 GMT

Simulator or no simulator, pay any outstanding balances down to $zero as soon as you can, period.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

ElvisCaprice — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 04:20:31 GMT

@Carloscda40 wrote:
Thanks for the replys. I was looking into paying all my balances to 0.
Didn't know it was a penaty for having zero balances and the banks would rather see mothly payments.

Never carry an outstanding balance with interest. This is the way as @ptatohed so describes.

Note: You can always pay off the balance when due after statement cuts. This statement balance will get reported and you won't be at zero (no penalty), yet no interest paid and you maximize interest to you on the free carry.

The only way you would get the zero balance penalty is if you don't put any spend on any of your CC's in any given month, all the balances were zeroed out or you zeroed out the balances before the statement cuts.

Utilization is a short term effect on most Fico scores which can be quickly rectified. Thus concentrate on the longer term effects.

Re: Capital One credit simulator

Pppoolboy — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:50:35 GMT

Simulators are worthless

Re: Capital One credit simulator

1lifeisworthit — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 18:30:45 GMT

Pay no attention.

Because there is no way of indicating that you want to use your cards the way they should be used. Some but not all allowed to post a balance, and then all posted balances paid off by the due date, and doing that month after month without fail.

That simulator also gives me no score change for my accounts aging for 2 years, lol, when clearly that helps a young AAoA, and gets rid of brand new status completely, AND lets all inquiries leave off.

I fiddle with it for entertainment occasionally.