Absolute best utilization with ONE credit card

[FirstAscent]

Thanks for the clarification, I was going to ask about that and how that was calculated, now I know =)

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@Anonymous

Remember that any non-zero percentage is always going to be rounded up to 1% as long as the dollar value isn't too small ($5 is sufficient).  A $5 reported balance may only be something like .07% utilization depending on your limit, but that number rounds up to 1% and is scored FICO wise as 1% utilization.

[Anonymous]

Sure thing.

It's also good to know that various CMS software with their fluff charts and graphs may round any .49 or less decimal down to the lower integer.  Their charts may show you then at 0% utilization if you're at .07% (or anything lower than .49%) but rest assured that for scoring purposes you are seen as being at 1%.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@FirstAscentwrote:

I’ve read all about AZEO but that doesn’t apply to me since I only have one credit card. My statement date is coming up in about a week and I’m looking for the highest potential point gain. I have an $1800 CL and am currently at 52% util (reported). Last month I went from 92 to 52% and saw a 20-50 point gain across my reports. 

From what I’ve read I shouldn’t pay it off to a zero balance, should I leave $3, $30, something else? What do you think will offer me the best point potential? Thanks everyone!

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If you only have one card individual card utilization = aggregate utilization. Fico score is heavily affected by high aggregate utilization. The generally recognized optimal range for aggregate utilization is above 0% but less than 9%. I personally try to stay under 6% aggregate utilization and would recommend you do the same (say under $100 in your case). However, even reporting a $450 balance (still under the 29% threshold) wont hurt your score too much - perhaps a 10 to 15 point reduction compared to an under $100 balance

Given you only have one card, you should always report a balance on it. Reporting $0 balance will kick in the "no recent activity on revolving accounts" penalty. How much is that penalty? Nominally 10 to 15 points lower than reporting an optimum utilization - based on my experience with industry enhanced Fico 8 versions.

If you do report a balance will Fico penalize you for 100% of accounts reporting balances? - IMO, NO. The "too many accounts with balances" deduct is almost certainly conditional and a minimum open account count is likely required before looking at % reporting.

[FirstAscent]

Hi everyone,

My new utilization just updated on all my reports, I was shooting for a balance of around $14 out of $1800 but I forgot about interest haha because I made a couple big payments after the due date (I still paid my bill on time though in a different payment). So I ended up with a $24 balance posting which technically puts me at 1.3% UTIL.

Got a decent score increase +30, +22, +32 (EQ, TU, EX)
So that puts me at 664, 677, and 678.

This is the highest my scores have ever been, I’m pretty excited

[HeavenOhio]

Good job!

Call your card company and see if you can arrange a payment that'll reset your grace period and make interest charges stop. That number will be a bit above your current balance.

Otherwise, the alternative is to let the card sit idle until it reports a balance of zero. If that happens, you'll get the 15–20 point FICO "all cards at zero" ding, which isn't the worst thing in the world when you understand that it can be "fixed" the following month. More importantly, you'd lose the use of the card during that time.

[SouthJamaica]

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@FirstAscent wrote:
Hi everyone,

My new utilization just updated on all my reports, I was shooting for a balance of around $14 out of $1800 but I forgot about interest haha because I made a couple big payments after the due date (I still paid my bill on time though in a different payment). So I ended up with a $24 balance posting which technically puts me at 1.3% UTIL.

Got a decent score increase +30, +22, +32 (EQ, TU, EX)
So that puts me at 664, 677, and 678.

This is the highest my scores have ever been, I’m pretty excited

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Great. Thanks for the input.

Now it will be interesting to see if you gain points, lose points, or stay the same when you go to zero.

If you might have interest charged in this period, overpay your bill a little, so that it will create a small credit balance, which will show up as zero.