Question re: utilization

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to give my score the quickest boost possible through lowering my utilization on my CC. I've lowered it to 9% but understand that some people have seen the greatest increase through lowering to 1-3%. It would be about $200 more to lower it to this range and I can do that. I'm just wondering what everyone's experience has been and what has worked best for them.

TIA!

[RobertEG]

I would look first at trying to have no more than one revolving report a balance, and making sure all accounts are equally tweaked.

At the level of tweaking you are talking about, if % revolv with a balance is high, it would most likely have a greater scoring impact.

Then individual accounts.  Having overall under some number, while one or two are much higher, can ding in the scoring of individual accounts.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I would look first at trying to have no more than one revolving report a balance, and making sure all accounts are equally tweaked.

At the level of tweaking you are talking about, if % revolv with a balance is high, it would most likely have a greater scoring impact.

Then individual accounts.  Having overall under some number, while one or two are much higher, can ding in the scoring of individual accounts.

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Thanks. I actually only have 1 other CC, an AmEx (I'm an AU), which I pay off every month. So, it always shows a $0 balance. I'll keep that info in mind in the future when I apply for another LOC to help rebuild my credit.

[Anonymous]

i am working on util also. From what I am understanding, if i have 3 credit cards they all need to be <9% vs some 0-2 and then one over 9%.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i am working on util also. From what I am understanding, if i have 3 credit cards they all need to be <9% vs some 0-2 and then one over 9%.

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Welcome to the forums.

Everyone's situation is different and there is no one size fits all approach to this but what seems to work well for most people is to have only one of their cards report a small (<9% of it's credit limit) balance each month and then pay in full before the due date. You can use it as much as you want during the month but what's important is the reported balance because for most cards whatever is reported on the monthly statement is what is used to calculate utilization for the month.

You might have to play around with the percentages for a few months to see what works best for you. Some people say that 1-3% utilization helps the most. For others it might be 5-9%. As I said it's not one size fits all.

On any other cards always try and have them report a zero balance each month. That doesn't mean you can't use them just make sure that the desired zero balance on these accounts is achieved several days before their statements post.

Along with individual and overall utilization, FICO also scores the number of all types of accounts reporting a balance.at any one time Making sure less than half of all your accounts report a balance helps most people.

Now this approach really isn't necessary if you're not looking to apply for any credit in the near future or unless you are trying to tweak your score for maximum effect but some folks do this as a hobby just to see how high they can get their score.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i am working on util also. From what I am understanding, if i have 3 credit cards they all need to be <9% vs some 0-2 and then one over 9%.

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Yes, welcome! I've only been on these boards for a few days but I've learned A LOT! I hope you find them just as useful and helpful!