How should I treat my shiny store cards?

[culture]

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@indiolatino61 wrote:

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@Dreamwalker wrote:

After hijacking daybreakgonesXe's thread, I picked up two new store cards: Amazon.com and Walmart. Neither earn rewards, so what's the smallest amount I can put on these cards and keep the issuers happy and giving me CLIs? Do I need to put something on them every month?

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I use all my cards monthly...but granted sometimes I buy soda, chips and the occassional Burger King for the entire month...lol! I try to charge $10/month on the no rewards cards to keep them active.

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and then you PIF before the cutting date?  

i need to understand better the game of the reporting balances and how the cc companies see this....

so much research ... anyone know a institution that will grant us a degree for this   LOL

[Dreamwalker]

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@culture wrote:

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@indiolatino61 wrote:

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@Dreamwalker wrote:

After hijacking daybreakgonesXe's thread, I picked up two new store cards: Amazon.com and Walmart. Neither earn rewards, so what's the smallest amount I can put on these cards and keep the issuers happy and giving me CLIs? Do I need to put something on them every month?

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I use all my cards monthly...but granted sometimes I buy soda, chips and the occassional Burger King for the entire month...lol! I try to charge $10/month on the no rewards cards to keep them active.

---

and then you PIF before the cutting date?  

i need to understand better the game of the reporting balances and how the cc companies see this....

so much research ... anyone know a institution that will grant us a degree for this   LOL

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This can vary a little depending on your strategy and the companies you are dealing with. Capital One is an interesting example. They reported my high balance as my balance every month, so each month my utilization for the card would be 70% because I once charged an item and didn't pay it off until after the statement cut date.

Some companies like Chase and Discover like to see you run up charges and pay them off, and that looks better than paying off each and every $5 item as it clears (Discover even encourages this by limiting your available credit if you pay too often).

I don't know how GE feels about how you treat their cards, and really, still don't after this thread.

Take a look at this thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Chase-freedom-PIF-or-carry-a-small-Balance/td-p/2105187

Particularly:

" I think if it is anything like the situation that has been described on here with Discover, then you should attempt to have a non-zero balance on the statement every month to show on your credit reports that the card was used every month. This doesn't involved a lot of interest fees. It just means PIF - 2 dollars or something like that. I would try to show use as much as possible without incurring interest fees. The whole process is a bit of a question mark of course. If your goal is only to get a CLI, then that is what I would do. I personally have a different goal. My goal is to improve my credit while avoiding going into debt so I am willing to sacrificed the speed that I get CLIs a little to guard against temptation to go into debt or to put off paying a credit card bill for a month or two. If you feel comfortable with yourself charging on your card and that you will be self disciplined with this strategy to get a CLI as quickly as possible then I would churn your card and show a high balance on your statement every month then PIF after your statement comes out. It can be the day after so as not to incur interest but you want to broadcast that you are using the card a lot and PIF before the statement date may not be enough. Your score may suffer temperarily because of increase Util% and I would not have high util% in the month immediately before you ask for a CLI but in the meantime I would try to broadcast to them in every way possible that you are churnin your card. Good luck...."