Utilization recommendations....

Anonymous · ‎01-05-2014

So like i mentioned in this post: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/New-overwhelmed-amp-excited/td-p/2691461 all my ccs are at a zero balance except Old Navy and toys r us both under $100 and not due until after next paycheck so waiting until then.

My questions are about utilization in order to improve score, clis etc while I ahem attempt to garden. I have two bank cards and several retail ones.

1. How often should I use them?

2. Should there be a waiting period between paying them off in full and using them again?

3. How long is "too long" for a card to be in the drawer?

Thank you!!!

Anonymous · ‎01-05-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
So like i mentioned in this post: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/New-overwhelmed-amp-excited/td-p/2691461 all my ccs are at a zero balance except Old Navy and toys r us both under $100 and not due until after next paycheck so waiting until then.

My questions are about utilization in order to improve score, clis etc while I ahem attempt to garden. I have two bank cards and several retail ones.

1. How often should I use them?
2. Should there be a waiting period between paying them off in full and using them again?
3. How long is "too long" for a card to be in the drawer?

Thank you!!!

1. Heavy usage can only help when it comes to CLIs.

2. Nope, just make sure you PIF each month to avoid interest.

3. Varies by lender. I've had a US Bank card SDed for 26 months now and they haven't done a thing about it. My J.Crew card was also SDed for ~12 months at one point and the CL didn't change.

Anonymous · ‎01-06-2014

As many threads here discuss, there's a distinction between paying your cards before the statement date, and after.

In the former case, $0 or the balance you choose shows up on your reports, and in the latter case, the full statement balance shows up.

For some people in some circumstances, letting a full balance report will hurt their scores, because the amounts on the report will appear to indicate overuse of credit, for example a maxed-out situation.

takeshi74 · ‎01-06-2014

@Anonymous wrote:

1. How often should I use them?
2. Should there be a waiting period between paying them off in full and using them again?
3. How long is "too long" for a card to be in the drawer?

What does "them" refer to? The store cards? The regular cards? All your cards?

In general you should at least use them enough to avoid closure due to inactivity (varies by creditor). You can use them as much as you want. It's report utilization that you want to manage. If you need to, you can pay prior to statement close to reduce reported utilization. That said, unless you're apping it doesn't make much sense to micromanage your utilization. When you're ready to leave the garden you can fine tune your utilization and wait for balances to report. In the meantime while you're gardening, PIF and continue to responsibly maintain your TL's.

Anonymous · ‎01-06-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
So like i mentioned in this post: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/New-overwhelmed-amp-excited/td-p/2691461 all my ccs are at a zero balance except Old Navy and toys r us both under $100 and not due until after next paycheck so waiting until then.

My questions are about utilization in order to improve score, clis etc while I ahem attempt to garden. I have two bank cards and several retail ones.

1. How often should I use them?
2. Should there be a waiting period between paying them off in full and using them again?
3. How long is "too long" for a card to be in the drawer? IME, GE CLD'd then closed the 3 original cards I had with them (Gap, BR & JCP) after some time (IIRC, 1-2 years) of non-activity. So, I plan to use the GE cards I now have at least every few months hopefully to prevent that from happening as well as to earn some CLI's (vs. CLD's). Otherwise, I'll close them myself if I find that we're not really using them at least on a quarterly or bi-annual basis.

Thank you!!!

Anonymous · ‎01-06-2014

Appreciate the responses everyone. For me paying after the statement date has proved to be a disadvantage because I was showing a high balance on a few of my ccs even though they are pif each month. Frustrating how timing is a gamble when it comes to reporting etc. I don't know how to juggle the utilization with the various reporting dates :/.