Optimal Credit Card Balances

[donkort]

I'd do 8.5% and 28.5% to leave myself breathing room in case the interest kicks in.

[Anonymous]

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@donkort wrote:

I'd do 8.5% and 28.5% to leave myself breathing room in case the interest kicks in.

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Or 8.5% and 8.5%!  That's what I'm shooting for.  After today I'll only have 3 cards reporting a balance.  My total utilization will be around 14% which is down from living at around 85-90% utilization for far, far too long.

[donkort]

Bring the TOTAL utilization down to below 8.5%.  That would be more ideal. 

Total (aggregate) utilization counts even more than the utilization of single cards.

[Anonymous]

Optimal for what? Scoring? CLIs? It depends.

For scoring, only one national bankcard <9%, or under 4% if you are in a young or thin profile. At all times try to stay <9% aggregate and <29% individual.

For CLIs, you wanna show most lenders useage ~30%.