Utilization

[Anonymous]

Hi,

If I have 8 credit cards and 3 of them have a zero balance, do the zero balanced cards still count in the utilization (if looking to get a mortgage)?  My thoughts were yes, since the cards are 'active', but, I wanted to get confirmation.

Thank you

[gdale6]

if they are open yes

[RonM21]

Absolutely

[Anonymous]

Also worth of noting here is that even if those 3 accounts (cards) were closed, as long as they were closed within the last 10 years they'd still be positively impacting your AAoA.

Closed accounts are still factored into your AAoA for 10 years.

[takeshi74]

A zero balance doesn't exclude a revolving account from revolving utilization.  One reason for the suggestion "allow only one balance to report with extremely low revolving utilization" for eking out additional points when applying for new credit, etc is that having the other accounts at 0 help to keep overall revolving utilization low.

Closed revolving accounts with balances also impact revolving utilization.

[Anonymous]

"Closed revolving accounts with balances also impact revolving utilization"
This is the worst kind of utilization as the limit is essentially 0 making it maxed out until paid off.