Question about Usage and Utilization

[Anonymous]

Hi All. New here, been reading recent topics and searched a few older ones. 
Trying to be better about making my credit cards work for me. I am carrying some debt on a few cards, Taxes one year due to a W-4 error. A couple others due to taking a pay decrease and not supplementing my income for a couple of years hoping for a promotion. 

Anyway, I have about 6 cards at a $0 balance and 4 cards at 80% utilization. 
My question is, if I use my empty cards once per month and pay off before statements generate, would I have a better chance at CLI's? the cards are with Amex, Chase and Discover. 

Or, would it not matter their usage due to the high utilization cards? 

[Anonymous]

That's a somewhat loaded question. Some lenders, like Discover like to see use before they give a CLI. AMEX, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be swayed by use, or lack thereof. 

All that said, the high utilization on your 4 cards (and probably a bit high overall), are going to throw you some roadblocks. Generally speaking, lenders don't like prolonged high utilization. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I figured as much. I have been fortunate that 2 of the cards are with Citi and they have been giving me a yearly CLI on the cards, so the utlization is going down 2 fold (payments and CLI). 

I just want to maximize my other cards, but I don't want to cycle them every month if it won't really benefit. I don't have too many auto-payments either to put on them. 

[Anonymous]

Well, since they're all automated at this point there's different things you can do.

Absolutely not using cards gives the computer little to no reason to offer a CLI based on lack of spend.  So, I would at least do something like Amazon reloads for $5/mo and turn around and pay it off or setup autopay for the balance on those cards.

Chase is the tougher one to deal with as every CLI is a HP vs the other 2 which are SP's.  

The high UTIL fortunately won't leave a lasting impact once it's paid off.  The more cards you can bring to a $0 balance the better but, getting under some lower thresholds will bring some additional points to your scores.  

Ideally if you could list out the CC's with bank/CL/Use/%/APR maybe there's a solution to be had in finessing the #'s and saving some cash on the interest.  There might be a way to shuffle some of the debt around a bit to make it easier to tackle.  Another potential option is PL's with lenders you're already with that bring the rates down to 6-9% instead of 20%+.  

[Anonymous]

I hadn't thought of the Amazon reloads. I could just do that to keep them being used. I have a plan to tackle the cards with higher utilization. I am about to pay off a PL that will allow me to put that $300/month payment towards the cards, plus some end of year bonuses and with tax return, I'm about to do some decent damage. Just wanted to maximize my $0 cards, so the amazon auto loads would be ideal. 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have a plan and new option to keep things active.

[M_Smart007]

@Anonymous   .. Welcome To myFICO Forums!

[M_Smart007]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I hadn't thought of the Amazon reloads. I could just do that to keep them being used. I have a plan to tackle the cards with higher utilization. I am about to pay off a PL that will allow me to put that $300/month payment towards the cards, plus some end of year bonuses and with tax return, I'm about to do some decent damage. Just wanted to maximize my $0 cards, so the amazon auto loads would be ideal. 

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I have used Amazon & Starbucks

try to get your individual Utilization below 28.9% ....   go a little lower if you think they will tack on interest. GL2U