REPORTED UTILIZATION

[Anonymous]

I often hear people talk about having one card report utilization between 1-9% for the best results. How big of difference would that actually make in my case for example (see scores below)? Is it worth the headace, if you can pay in full why not pay in full?

[Guava]

Your scores are excellent. IMO adjusting util ratio isn't worth the effort in your case. FICO doesn't score you on your past util ratios so you can easily adjust it a month in advance for your need.

[LS2982]

@shawal,

You need to show usage for your FICO scores to continue to grow. Thats just how the system wrks.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I often hear people talk about having one card report utilization between 1-9% for the best results. How big of difference would that actually make in my case for example (see scores below)? Is it worth the headace, if you can pay in full why not pay in full?

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As I often say there is no one size fits all approach to this. For someone with higher scores and/or plans for applying for new credit anytime soon it's not necessary to try and tweak out every last point. But some folks do it as a hobby and just for fun and it becomes second nature.

The tactic of letting just one card report a small balance does seem to help most people but I would never say it's something everyone needs to do all the time. The bottom line? Do whatever seems to work best for you.