@Anonymous wrote:I have 6 credit cards and just got 5 down to zero balance with the other around 5% utilization. Once you get all of your cards to zero balance except one. How long can you leave those balances at zero. Can it have a negative impact if the cards appear idle for along period of time?
Assuming you're using your cards, just because a card does not report a balance doesn't mean the card wasn't active during the month. If you look at your credit reports you'll see things like "Payment History" and "Balance History" which show your card was active, even though it was paid in full by the statement date.
@Anonymous wrote:I have 6 credit cards and just got 5 down to zero balance with the other around 5% utilization. Once you get all of your cards to zero balance except one. How long can you leave those balances at zero. Can it have a negative impact if the cards appear idle for along period of time?
Don't worry. If you use the card, and pay it down to zero before it reports, the reports will reflect that the account was used and is not "idle" 
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I have 6 credit cards and just got 5 down to zero balance with the other around 5% utilization. Once you get all of your cards to zero balance except one. How long can you leave those balances at zero. Can it have a negative impact if the cards appear idle for along period of time?
Don't worry. If you use the card, and pay it down to zero before it reports, the reports will reflect that the account was used and is not "idle"
Where in our report would we see if an account is reporting as idle?
@dunn2500 wrote:so if you use your cards and pay them to 0%, the report to CRA will reflect your usage?......i always thought they just go off balance when statement is cut.....now am really confused,
It depends upon the lender. In the case of my three credit card issuers, paying the card in full by the due date is irrelevant; if I want the card to report to zero, I need to make sure it is paid in full immediately prior to the statement being cut.
You can have some of your cards report zero on the card of your choosing each month. When it comes to CLI's when you ask for one. Some companies want to see heavy usage even though you pay it down to $0 each month. It will help when you ask for more. But each company has their own things they like. Some companies will say you dont use it enough for a CLI. Where some like the heavy usage and grant you the CLI. Its a YMMV which each lender.
