AZEO with high utilization VS no AZEO with lower utilization

[FirstAscent]

Hey everyone!

I did some searching but couldn't find any info on this, but maybe I just wasn't searching for the right words?

I just got a new NFCU Platinum card and did a balance transfer from all my other 3 cards. so now all of my cards have a $0 balance except my NFCU card. This is all recent so hasn't been updated on my credit reports yet. 

If it were to update right this second, my NFCU card would be at 87.7% util with all others being 0. 

From a credit score perspective, would it be better to temporarily have some of the costs on other cards so they showed less utilization but not having AZEO?

Also, total aggregate utilization of all cards combined would be 43.8%.

I can pay some down but for the purpose of this discussion let's assume all numbers remain as-is. 

[thornback]

I don't think it would matter much in this case.  AZEO with 87% individual and 43% aggregate would still yield utilization penalties for both individual and aggregate. 

Spreading it across your cards (depending on how many cards) would yield penalties for "too many cards with balances" and high aggregate util. 

I feel as though either way may break about the same scorewise. 

[ocheosa]

If you have another NFCU card you can move some, or most, of the CL from that card to this one to help with utilization. If there is a CLI upcoming on the card , wait and do that first before requesting reallocation as moving credit lines will lock in the six month wait period. That's what I would do.

[SouthJamaica]

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@FirstAscent wrote:

Hey everyone!

I did some searching but couldn't find any info on this, but maybe I just wasn't searching for the right words?

I just got a new NFCU Platinum card and did a balance transfer from all my other 3 cards. so now all of my cards have a $0 balance except my NFCU card. This is all recent so hasn't been updated on my credit reports yet. 

If it were to update right this second, my NFCU card would be at 87.7% util with all others being 0. 

From a credit score perspective, would it be better to temporarily have some of the costs on other cards so they showed less utilization but not having AZEO?

Also, total aggregate utilization of all cards combined would be 43.8%.

I can pay some down but for the purpose of this discussion let's assume all numbers remain as-is. 

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Your FICO 8 scores would be better if you could get as many as possible reporting at 28% or less and if NFCU was a lot less than 87%.

[FirstAscent]

@thornback - Thanks, yeah that's what I was kinda thinking as well. maybe it would have more of an affect if aggregate utilization was much lower. 

@ocheosa - Unfortunately I do not, my other cards are Wells Fargo, Discover IT, and AMEX BCE. But good idea, thanks for the advise anyways!

@SouthJamaica - Well within the next week or two the WF, Discover, and AMEX will all report as 0%, they've already been paid so now I'm just waiting. So I'll get a nice point increase until the NFCU card posts for the first time in which I obviously expect the scores to come down some again. 

The NFCU card has about a $21k balance, so I'm not quite ready to pay it down to 28%. However, I'll be paying it down to at least 68% in the next week or so, hopefully before it reports for the first time.

Side note - earlier today my WF card $0 balance posted on EX, got an 11 point increase up to 682. This is an all time high score for me and 2 other cards still show balances with a high utilization. Woohoo! stoked for an all time high!