Three things affect the revolving portion of your score:
- Overall utilization
- Individual card utilization, which is determined by the card that has the highest utilization
- Number/percentage of cards reporting a balance
Overall utilization is the most important. It's unclear which of the other two is more important.
28.9% or below is considered "responsible borrowing." It's going to keep you out of trouble with lenders, and it's generally considered to be the second best scoring tier. 8.9% or below usually optimizes one's scoring, but some have reported dings for exceeding approximately 5%. That's why I suggested a very low balance on a single card. It takes the mystery out of the equation.
After achieving AZEO with a very low balance, one can play around a bit to see what can be gotten away with, e.g. a second card with a positive balance or somewhat higher utilization. If there's no score ding, you're fine. If there's a slight score ding, you might find that to be acceptable. If you play around and there's a bigger ding than you'd like, simply know that it can be fixed the next month.
Sometimes advice seems to conflict because it's tailored to the individuals asking particular questions. Oftentimes, they're trying to pay off a lot of debt and achieve a scoring gain as quickly as possible. When there isn't enough money to pay down debt entirely, advice is often centered on what's achievable quickly.
Starting Score: 477