Is outstanding balance a consideration when apping?

[too-much-time]

I would imagine a maxed-out card will raise an eyebrow, but what about “reasonable” use of say $1000 or moderate use of say $100? Or maybe the best is to pay the outstanding balance fully down before apping for a second card from a given lender?

[gdale6]

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@too-much-time wrote:

I would imagine a maxed-out card will raise an eyebrow, but what about “reasonable” use of say $1000 or moderate use of say $100? Or maybe the best is to pay the outstanding balance fully down before apping for a second card from a given lender?

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Reasonable balance reporting should not be a problem at all, 100 on a 1K CL card is just fine, just dont have every one of your cards reporting some kind of balance.

[TRC_WA]

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@gdale6 wrote:

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@too-much-time wrote:

I would imagine a maxed-out card will raise an eyebrow, but what about “reasonable” use of say $1000 or moderate use of say $100? Or maybe the best is to pay the outstanding balance fully down before apping for a second card from a given lender?

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Reasonable balance reporting should not be a problem at all, 100 on a 1K CL card is just fine, just dont have every one of your cards reporting some kind of balance.

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Exactly.  

I gardened for a year prior to my recent app spree that netted me a Nordstrom, Amex, Sallie Mae and Discover.

I also had just a couple INQs across the board and 7 of 9 cards reporting a $0 balance.

i went 6 for 6... The 4 new accounts plus I doubled my CL on CapOne and BBuy.

[Anonymous]

All of my cards have a balance post every month, which is then PIF before the due date. Yes, it docks me a couple points on the score to not play the "all but one at 0%" game, but its not a red flag to see the use. Ideally, you want less than 10% utilization on each card, but if you keep it under 30%, nobody is going to raise a flag about it. 

[Anonymous]

that depends on the amount!