Credit Card Utilization Question

[dodfire]

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@littlepriest01 wrote:

Does SD mean slow down? I'm new to the forums and don't know all of your fico lingo 

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SD = Sock Drawer = Dont use them!!

And good luck on your score bump!!

[09Lexie]

Thanks dodfire !

Op, By the way... Welcome to the forum!

[littlepriest01]

One more question, how long after each credit card statement is printed does it take for them to report to the agency?

[enharu]

About a week at most. Transunion is usually the slowest

[Anonymous]

Sock Drawer

[littlepriest01]

Last night one of the three credit agencies (Experian) updated to include the new balance. It improved my FAKO Score from USAA from 605 to 631, with only one of my credit cards paid down. I'm paying 1.5x what I just did over again, so I'm hoping that I will see a significant overall bump.

I'll be pulling myFico again once I see it reported at all three agencies.

Thanks all

[dodfire]

Thats great news....Congrats!!

[webhopper]

Hello and Welcome to MyFICO community forums!

Congrats on the score bump!

Most folks seem to get max FICO points by gearing their cc paying habits to their statement dates and/or account reporting dates (usually one and the same, but different in a few cases such as AmEx, US Bank and 1 or 2 others) to control the reported balances on their CR's and therefore their utiliization (debt-to-available credit ratio), since low util makes for happy FICO scores.

Most CCCs report your account balance as of your statement date, and most do the actual reporting to the credit bureaus ON your statement date as well (again - a few exceptions).

So, in general, the trick is to either PIF before your statement/reporting date every month or to pay down to a tiny percentage of your overall credit limit (all zero balances can actually hurt your scores, so it pays to let at least one report a balance, unless you only have 1 or 2 cc's), let that tiny percentage report, then PIF once your statement cuts to avoid paying any interest.

FICO scores love to see what appear to be minimally-used credit cards!

[littlepriest01]

If AMEX doesn't report on statement date, when do they?