Wrapping-up My Credit Questions

[Anonymous]

1. Yes ... it's an aggregate. I have $3000 in available credit, but have a balance of $400 on just ONE card. My UTI is 13%. If my balance was $200 on two different cards, my UTI is still 13%

2. Correct ... however, it's important to pay off your balance as reported on the 3rd, before the due date, or else you will be charged interest. Example ... I have a $400 balance reported on my Cap One on the 2nd. My payment is due the 27th. Before the 27th I will pay it off entirely (and you can do so in multiple payments, as long as the entire balance is paid off). Assuming this, anything I put on my card from the 3rd on, will NOT be charged interest, UNLESS I fail to pay last month's balance. 

Make sense?

You really don't want to get into the interest paying cycle. It takes two months to get back onto an interest free cycle. I've put thousands of dollars through my card(s) this year and I've not paid one penny of interest. And I intend to keep it that way

[Anonymous]

Having a balance on a single card will get you more points than having balances on all of your cards. If you are looking to maximize your score, PIF one card and leave a balance on the other, 9% or less. The 2$ trick works wonders. It gives you the score boost for having a balance, but leaves you at 0% util.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, in addition to cleaning up my reports (which I'm in the process of doing), score maximization is my other goal. However, I'm going to break my "final question" rule, as I did have a few more that have popped up since. Hopefully these will be the final, final ones lol.

1) Can utilization be slit over more than one card to make up the total? For instance, if my 10% utilization for the month of my total credit line should be $400 and I report a $200 balance on two cards, is the counted in the same way?

2) If my close date is the 3rd and my due date is the 30th, I assume a new open date starts on the 4th. So does that mean anything charged after the 4th will be calculated separately for the following month and not affect the current balance/interest?

Thanks!

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1- Actually, both combined UTI, and individual card UTI is part of scoring. So you could actually have below 10% UTI total, but if its all on one card that has a low limit, so that its individual UTI is over 90%, your scores will not be at or near their peak. So the recommendation to peak your scores is "ONE card with a balance, under 10% of THAT CARDS LIMIT". While there may be other combinations that "get you there", that is a simple rule that gets you there in virtually every scenario.

2. Yes, that is correct.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, in addition to cleaning up my reports (which I'm in the process of doing), score maximization is my other goal. However, I'm going to break my "final question" rule, as I did have a few more that have popped up since. Hopefully these will be the final, final ones lol.

1) Can utilization be slit over more than one card to make up the total? For instance, if my 10% utilization for the month of my total credit line should be $400 and I report a $200 balance on two cards, is the counted in the same way?

2) If my close date is the 3rd and my due date is the 30th, I assume a new open date starts on the 4th. So does that mean anything charged after the 4th will be calculated separately for the following month and not affect the current balance/interest?

Thanks!

---

1- Actually, both combined UTI, and individual card UTI is part of scoring. So you could actually have below 10% UTI total, but if its all on one card that has a low limit, so that its individual UTI is over 90%, your scores will not be at or near their peak. So the recommendation to peak your scores is "ONE card with a balance, under 10% of THAT CARDS LIMIT". While there may be other combinations that "get you there", that is a simple rule that gets you there in virtually every scenario.

2. Yes, that is correct.

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I so appreciate your knowledge ... I didn't realize/know this. Thank you! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone who replied above. Your wisdom and guidance are much appreciated.

@jjking54

In regards to your second point about paying things off. Let's say I have a $200 balance after my close date on the 2nd that is due on the 30th. Let's also say my new cycle starts on the 3rd. I assume that If I then add $20 more to the card before paying off the other $200 balance, I'm still not going to be charged any interest because the other $20 came after the new opening date (providing a pay the full $200 off before it's due, leaving just the $20 on the card for next month). Make sense? I assume I have this right, but please confirm.

@NormanFH

I want to make sure I understand you correctly, as I've actually never heard this part before about UTI. Your saying that even if I have my total credit UTI for the month at 10% (giving me somewhat of a bump), I still may not get the full bump due to the bureau seeing one of my cards as near maxed out (like if put $200 of my monthly UTI on a card with a $250 limit). So theoretically, if I did need to use more than one card, I could still pull it off if I kept my overall UTI to about 10% and made sure balances on the cards was not more than 10% of the total card limit of each? Am I picking up on what you're saying?

[Anonymous]

Yup, you got it.

[Anonymous]

Yup, correct.

[Anonymous]

Wow, the ins and outs of how credit really works is truly a complicated thing. Most people probably have no idea about this great info I found here today. I can't thank everyone enough. You've probably changed my life in how I'll be doing things moving forward. Myself and my family thanks you all!