@Anonymous wrote:I forgot to mention I'm in my 20s, I suppose. But I think I get it, I understand. Maybe its also an issue my income is lower than available credit..
Exactly. With as much as we all disclose on My FICO, there's still a lot of profile information you don't really see. It's difficult to compare profiles. Some profiles having $1M or higher in credit might have incomes and spending much higher than that. Meanwhile, you're already at 2.5x income in credit limits relative to income. While we've had members exceed that by multiples, it starts to concern some lenders and hold back your progress.
@Anonymous wrote:If I don't do AZEO since i pay in full I noticed every month is a ding from -5 to -10. ... Should I basically max out a card to show usage on statement and pay-in-full and take the ding for the month? I'm trying to learn how to get internal spending to reflect on credit reports.
That 5-10 point 'ding' is temporary. Utilization loading is temporary and scores rebound quickly once it's paid down. AZEO is a helpful short-term technique when you're applying for new credit to maximize your score, especially if it's marginal for a card approval. It's not necessary to do it day-in-day-out. Allowing statement balances to occassionally report will better show new lenders that you are using your cards and managing them well. Save the AZEO to get the point boost when you need it, a month or two before applying for new credit. Keep in mind, though, that with your limits already at 2.5x income, that could hold you back on approvals regardless of how much is reporting.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your help. I think I will close these 2 cards out honestly today, just move on. I think I'll keep my existing cards and just let time thicken my profile. Weed-out the low limits and garden for a few years. I do have some good lenders with good limits, it's just that I had a depository relationship with these specific creditors but I think I will close them out completely, and move on to the creditors/lendors that do work for me and do like my specific profile.
Rather than close the cards just due to low limits, consider the value of the rewards/subs/multipliers and close cards that are not useful from a value perspective. You must have applied for those cards for a reason, hopefully because they would bring in value to your lineup. If you're going to pull weeds, might as well jettison what isn't giving you a return, which will have the added benefit of lowering some of your overall open credit and allow you to shoot for more opportunities in the future.
@Anonymous wrote:Wanted to ask you something final about reflecting balances, another poster said that 'highest balance' wouldnt apply/matter because computers dont consider them. Would this help on a manual review? Just out of curiousity to show that i'm actually using my cards
Probably not. The exception mentioned was that a few cards may report a mid-cycle balance. A highest-balance-reported on a card could have happened years ago and your spending and income patterns may be quite different today. The better way to show usage is periodically allowing statement balances to report to the credit reporting bureaus. You've got overall utilization rates protected pretty well with those high TCLs relative to income. Just try to avoid very high individual rates on any single card also, as that will cause a larger spike in your score than if the same debt is spread over several cards. Under 9% is optimum for scoring, but under around 25% of limit isn't unreasonable to report. That shows good usage of existing limit without appearing debt-burdened. As I mentioned, scores will rebound quickly once it is paid to $0.