Optimal Credit Card Balances

[Anonymous]

Hi all, thanks in advance for the responses!

It seems as if the general consensus online for optimal credit card utilization is to use less than 30% of available credit.  There are some others who say that as close to zero is the best.  

What's been your experience with this?  

For those who say less than 30%, is it 30% of overall utilization or does it need to be less than 30% per card?  

Does that make sense?  Thanks again!

[Remedios]

Individual utilization should stay below 29%, aggregate below 9%

For super duper best results, both individual and aggregate below 9%

If you need to squeeze every last point, only one card reporting a balance below 9% 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all, thanks in advance for the responses!

It seems as if the general consensus online for optimal credit card utilization is to use less than 30% of available credit.  There are some others who say that as close to zero is the best.  

What's been your experience with this?  

For those who say less than 30%, is it 30% of overall utilization or does it need to be less than 30% per card?  

Does that make sense?  Thanks again!

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1.  Optimally aggregate utilization should be as low as possible, but not dead zero. 30% or even less than 30% is not good at all. 6% or less is good.

2.  Optimally individual utilization should be as low as possible, but there should at least one account which is not at dead zero. It's ok for it to get up to 28 or 29% sometimes, but over that you get significantly penalized.

For FICO scoring purposes "utilization" isn't really utilization in the generic sense, it's the reported balances.

[Anonymous]

This would be the AZOE method that I've read about, is that right?

1.  Optimally aggregate utilization should be as low as possible, but not dead zero. 30% or even less than 30% is not good at all. 6% or less is good.

2.  Optimally individual utilization should be as low as possible, but there should at least one account which is not at dead zero. It's ok for it to get up to 28 or 29% sometimes, but over that you get significantly penalized.

For FICO scoring purposes "utilization" isn't really utilization in the generic sense, it's the reported balances

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all, thanks in advance for the responses!

It seems as if the general consensus online for optimal credit card utilization is to use less than 30% of available credit.  There are some others who say that as close to zero is the best.  

What's been your experience with this?  

For those who say less than 30%, is it 30% of overall utilization or does it need to be less than 30% per card?  

Does that make sense?  Thanks again!

---

1.  Optimally aggregate utilization should be as low as possible, but not dead zero. 30% or even less than 30% is not good at all. 6% or less is good.

2.  Optimally individual utilization should be as low as possible, but there should at least one account which is not at dead zero. It's ok for it to get up to 28 or 29% sometimes, but over that you get significantly penalized.

For FICO scoring purposes "utilization" isn't really utilization in the generic sense, it's the reported balances.

---

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This would be the AZOE method that I've read about, is that right?

1.  Optimally aggregate utilization should be as low as possible, but not dead zero. 30% or even less than 30% is not good at all. 6% or less is good.

2.  Optimally individual utilization should be as low as possible, but there should at least one account which is not at dead zero. It's ok for it to get up to 28 or 29% sometimes, but over that you get significantly penalized.

For FICO scoring purposes "utilization" isn't really utilization in the generic sense, it's the reported balances

---

@SouthJamaica wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all, thanks in advance for the responses!

It seems as if the general consensus online for optimal credit card utilization is to use less than 30% of available credit.  There are some others who say that as close to zero is the best.  

What's been your experience with this?  

For those who say less than 30%, is it 30% of overall utilization or does it need to be less than 30% per card?  

Does that make sense?  Thanks again!

---

1.  Optimally aggregate utilization should be as low as possible, but not dead zero. 30% or even less than 30% is not good at all. 6% or less is good.

2.  Optimally individual utilization should be as low as possible, but there should at least one account which is not at dead zero. It's ok for it to get up to 28 or 29% sometimes, but over that you get significantly penalized.

For FICO scoring purposes "utilization" isn't really utilization in the generic sense, it's the reported balances.

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Well you asked what is optimal. What is optimal is having all but one of the accounts reporting at zero. The reason is that older scoring models, like the mortgage scores (EX FICO 2, EQ FICO 5, TU FICO 4), like to see a lot of zero balances.

[seattletravels]

Search the forum for AZEO and you'll find all the info you could want about reporting balances. 

[donkort]

Don't let the one which reports a balance be a store card.  It has to be card you can use outside branches of that particular store.

[pinkandgrey]

As others have said, the supposed "optimal" utilization is one card reporting under 8.9%, and your overall utilization staying below 28.9%

[Remedios]

No, the opposite 

Aggregate needs to be under 9%, and single card reporting a small balance (again under 9%,).

That's alleged "total optimization"

Aggregate under 9%, while individual card is under 29% but over 9% may lead to a few points loss

[pinkandgrey]

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@Remedios wrote:

No, the opposite 

Aggregate needs to be under 9%, and single card reporting a small balance (again under 9%,).

That's alleged "total optimization"

Aggregate under 9%, while individual card is under 29% but over 9% may lead to a few points loss

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Dangit, I knew I wrote that wrong lol. What I wrote doesn't even make sense if you read it slowly.