10% credit card balance question

[seratonin]

Hi.  I have read that the ideal credit card balance is less than 10%.  My question, is that 10% of your available credit ranging over all your cards, or is it 10% on one card.

I have kept my overall credit card balance to less than 10% of the total credit available.  When it is on one card, the balance is more than 10% of that credit limit.  Is this the same difference?  or does it matter?  I want to do the thing that helps my credit score.  Thanks for any help.

[Anonymous]

To maximize your score I'm fairly certain you want to have all but one card report 0 balance and then one card with less than 10% utilization of that one card's limit.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

To maximize your score I'm fairly certain you want to have all but one card report 0 balance and then one card with less than 10% utilization of that one card's limit.

---

+1. FICO score takes into consideration total util < 10% as well as individual cards util < 10%.

[MarineVietVet]

---

@seratonin wrote:

Hi.  I have read that the ideal credit card balance is less than 10%.  My question, is that 10% of your available credit ranging over all your cards, or is it 10% on one card.

I have kept my overall credit card balance to less than 10% of the total credit available.  When it is on one card, the balance is more than 10% of that credit limit.  Is this the same difference?  or does it matter?  I want to do the thing that helps my credit score.  Thanks for any help.

---

Everyone's situation is different and there is no one size fits all approach to this but what seems to work well for most people is to have only one of their cards report a small (<9% of it's credit limit) balance each month and then pay in full before the due date. You can use it as much as you want during the month but what's important is the reported balance because for most cards whatever is reported on the monthly statement is what is used to calculate utilization for the month.

You might have to play around with the percentages for a few months to see what works best for you. Some people say that 1-3% utilization helps the most. For others it might be 5-9%. As I said it's not one size fits all.

On any other cards always try and have them report a zero balance each month. That doesn't mean you can't use them just make sure that the desired zero balance on these accounts is achieved several days before their statements post.

Along with individual and overall utilization, FICO also scores the number of all types of accounts reporting a balance.at any one time Making sure less than half of all your accounts report a balance helps most people.

Now this approach really isn't necessary if you're not looking to apply for any credit in the near future or unless you are trying to tweak your score for maximum effect but some folks do this as a hobby just to see how high they can get their score.

[seratonin]

thank you.  I am about to apply for a mortgage so I am trying to get all those ducks in a row.