9% Utilization question?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, first off I want to say thank you to all, the information given here is priceless. I would not be this far along in my rebuild were it not for this site. I started my rebuild in June of this year after my Chapter 13 was discharged in March. My fico Transunion score was 508. Since then I have followed the advice given here. My fico scores as of 9/30/17 are TU 645, EQ 661, EX 698. Only derogatory is chapter 13. 

I have the following accounts:

NfCU secured $1000/ bal 237 paying tomorrow.

Capitol One $300/ bal 0

Discover It secured $200/bal 0

Alliant shared secured loan $500/ bal $44

Ny and Co $350/ bal 0

Victoria Secret $500/ bal 0

My question is I know that I should let one account report 9% utilization and the rest 0, however since I have the shared secured loan reporting $44 monthly does that mean all credit cards should report 0 to effectively continuye to raise my score?

Also should I  garden at this point to allow all these accounts to age? 

Appreciate the input. Thank you.

[DaveInAZ]

Debt is allocated into 3 categories:

- Revolving (credit card)

- Installment

- Real Estate

For the maximum score you want 1 revolving/CC reporting at 9% or less. Your Alliant secured loan is considered separately from CCs, and is right where it needs to be - less than 10% of original loan amount for maximum score. I suggest letting that NFCU card report with around $50 balance.

And yes, I would let those accounts age for awhile before applying for any new credit.

[Anonymous]

Agreeing with Dave there -- let $5-$50 report on the NFCU card, then after it posts to the bureaus, pay it in full so you aren't charged interest.

On the card I report a balance on, I switch from $50 one month to $5 the next month and back to $50 the next month.  I do this so I get actual alerts from my monitoring plan.  If you always report the same balance (and then pay it off), you may not get an alert that a balance changed.  Make sure to change what amount of balance reports so that the difference is bigger than the alert trigger amount!

[Anonymous]

Ok thank you @DaveInAz and @ABCD2199!!!