Yes. You'll get the all zero penalty. If you can put a small charge on one card of <8% and let it report. Then pay before the due date. Thats when you'll see the most gains. Or AZEO as we say. But you'll still see gains from getting your util down for where it was before. Congrats.
@drewsg3 wrote:I know the general consensus is that you be less than 30% credit utilization, my score went to 770 when I got down to 20% utilization. But a couple of days ago I paid off everything. Will carrying a zero balance on all my cards hurt my overall credit?
1. There is no such general consensus. Yes you should try to be under 30% but it's better to be under 7%. And it's even better to be under 5%. 30% is not great and causes you to lose a lot of points.
2. "Carrying" a zero balance won't hurt you; in fact it's helpful. But reporting all zero balances will cause a penalty. You should let one bank card report a small balance each month before you pay it off.
@drewsg3 wrote:I know the general consensus is that you be less than 30% credit utilization, my score went to 770 when I got down to 20% utilization. But a couple of days ago I paid off everything. Will carrying a zero balance on all my cards hurt my overall credit?
Oh no! The creditors will not like this
Oh well, tuff cookies
Yes it will hurt your score but if you allow one card to report a balance you will be better off. Good thing is once a statement cuts with a balance, this will be reported to bureaus , you can pay in full and still be cc debt free
Boy I wish I could achieve that...sigh...
It was mentioned and I will confirm my oops in November 2021! Pursuing a balance transfer (got it) and due to timing created an AZEO situation. 
The EX Cb hit me for a drop of 28 points while EQ and TU ignored the zero balance situation. Once the balance transfer reported all was happy again and EX up dated my profile and returned the 28 points ( I did not think they would give them all back as a few years back this happened and they did not give me back all the points). 
@drewsg3 wrote:Thanks guys. I will buy something and put it on my Amazon or Best buy so I can pay it off interest free while the balance reports.
Well I hope it's something you actually need, because it's never a good idea to incur debt for the sake of FICO scores. We always say around here Finances > FICO.
