Quick Question about using credit cards and frequency

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone!!!

I've posted a few times and I'm now in the "Garden" and I've recieved a lot of good advice so far but I have a few questions....

From what I've read I should Use 30% of my cards and keep all of them under 10%......I also have heard keep all cards except one with zero balances, and have a "Reporting" card.

I want to know know what's the longest I can go without using the cards and not have them close.......Ideally, I want to only spend 20 a month to improve my credit.....Im not looking for more $$$ Trouble. Where can I get this information about frequency to keep it open? Any rough guidelines?

My Cards:

Capital One Secured (250) <------Will be my main card

Credit One Secured (300)

Victoria Secret Store Card (250)

Buckle Store Card (250)

Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Everyone!!!

I've posted a few times and I'm now in the "Garden" and I've recieved a lot of good advice so far but I have a few questions....

From what I've read I should Use 30% of my cards and keep all of them under 10%......I also have heard keep all cards except one with zero balances, and have a "Reporting" card.

I want to know know what's the longest I can go without using the cards and not have them close.......Ideally, I want to only spend 20 a month to improve my credit.....Im not looking for more $$$ Trouble. Where can I get this information about frequency to keep it open? Any rough guidelines?

My Cards:

Capital One Secured (250) <------Will be my main card

Credit One Secured (300)

Victoria Secret Store Card (250)

Buckle Store Card (250)

Thanks

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You may need one more non-store card to make it work best.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Everyone!!!

I've posted a few times and I'm now in the "Garden" and I've recieved a lot of good advice so far but I have a few questions....

From what I've read I should Use 30% of my cards and keep all of them under 10%......I also have heard keep all cards except one with zero balances, and have a "Reporting" card.

I want to know know what's the longest I can go without using the cards and not have them close.......Ideally, I want to only spend 20 a month to improve my credit.....Im not looking for more $$$ Trouble. Where can I get this information about frequency to keep it open? Any rough guidelines?

My Cards:

Capital One Secured (250) <------Will be my main card

Credit One Secured (300)

Victoria Secret Store Card (250)

Buckle Store Card (250)

Thanks

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The wording in that sentence is confusing, meaning I don't know if you have the correct relationship of the percentages. So I will restate what I think they should say

Ideally, each card has less than 30% utilization on that one card.

The reporting optimizers will tell you to let one card report 10% only, and zero on the others. So, you can see this is in conflict with the first statement.

In my opinion, you are not at the "optimization" level yet. You are in account activity history building mode, so even the first statement to limit the balance to 30% doesn't apply.

Thus, for the forseeable future, my suggestion would be to use the CapOne cards to a level you can pay them at each statement date in full. Not before the statement prints, but by the due date. Since the limits are so low, your main objective with this is to show CapOne a good payment history, so they may raise your CL, or move you into a non-secured card.

Once you get more history, get several non-secured cards, and you want to start optimizing your score, then you can start looking to do the 10% on one card thing. For now, it will only frustrate you, and not really do much to "optimize" your score.

Good luck!

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

From what I've read I should Use 30% of my cards and keep all of them under 10%......I also have heard keep all cards except one with zero balances, and have a "Reporting" card.

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It's actually 30% max and optimize to only one balance reporting at 10% or less when applying if you're looking to eke out every possible point.

You can use whatever you want and pay down the balance prior to reporting (statement end for most cards) to adjust reported utilization to 30%, 10%, 0 or whatever is desired.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I want to know know what's the longest I can go without using the cards and not have them close......

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As always -- verify directly with your creditors.  Policies can and do vary.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ideally, I want to only spend 20 a month to improve my credit.....

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You don't get X points for Y dollars.  It's a matter of improving the usual factors.  Start with the biggest slice and work your way down.

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

You don't have to go into debt to build credit.  You can treat your cards as cash and pay in full each month.  You do not need to carry balances to have balances report.

[compassion101]

I try to use my sd accounts every 6 months for a charge

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Everyone!!!

I've posted a few times and I'm now in the "Garden" and I've recieved a lot of good advice so far but I have a few questions....

From what I've read I should Use 30% of my cards and keep all of them under 10%......I also have heard keep all cards except one with zero balances, and have a "Reporting" card.

I want to know know what's the longest I can go without using the cards and not have them close.......Ideally, I want to only spend 20 a month to improve my credit.....Im not looking for more $$$ Trouble. Where can I get this information about frequency to keep it open? Any rough guidelines?

My Cards:

Capital One Secured (250) <------Will be my main card

Credit One Secured (300)

Victoria Secret Store Card (250)

Buckle Store Card (250)

Thanks

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I would not want to keep the Credit One card; I believe it charges interest from day 1 of the purchases.

Use the cards as you need to, not constrained by "frequency" and utilization.

If you are close to your credit limit on a card, pay it off before the statement is generated. Otherwise, you can pay it after the statement. 

You are at a building stage and therefore should worry about paying on time and how to avoid paying any interest. 6 months with perfect payment history (and no baddies) will get your scores to decent levels (680-ish, in my experience) and you can then get some better, unsecured cards.

[Chris679]

In my opinion you can safely go one year without usage and not worry about them closing the account. Between one and two years and that's a little riskier but I've done it many times. Over two years and you are playing with fire.