@masscredit wrote:Another update that might help some. As I've mentioned before, I usually let one card report a balance each month. Well, I ran into a little problem last month. Cap 1 charged me membership fees earlier than they told me they were going to. That happened the day the statement closed so I didn't have a chance to pay them which resulted in 3 cards reporting a balance. The card that usually reports a balance was at $836., one Cap 1 at $59. and the other at $39. The two Cap 1s didn't have high balances but they still had balances. I lost points for that. And then I changed which one card will normally report a balance. But... that card didn't report until 2 weeks after the statement closed so I had 4 cards reporting. The balance on the forth card is $753. Total utilization was only 6% but I lost more points. Ex 08 went from 686 down to 658. The card that had the $836 balance finally updated with a zero balance today. That amount was 13% of the card's available credit. I gained 23 points after it reported zero.
I'm not expecting a many points after the two Cap 1 cards report. Both of them closed at $0.00 yesterday. I should at least get my 5-6 points back.
Interesting thread, thanks for taking the time over the months to update your experience.
A comment, and not directed at anyone on this thread, but I see it everywhere on MyFICO posts. People are totally focused on Utilization balance, which is 30% of your overal FICO score. But the FICO is weighted 35% based on Payment History, according to the "what's in my credit score" page elsewhere on this site. That's two words: Payment and History.
My opinion is that many new members on here, who have a few cards on hand and are trying to decide whether to carry $1 on only one card, $0 on the others, or maybe MAYBE let that one card go to $10 are missing the point. You have a credit card to obtain credit. A credit card company gives you a card to prove you are trustworthy, to lend. The FICO score then measures the complex relationship, over time, of your experience with credit.
If you look closely at your credit report details, if you have no balance on a card, you have no payment for that month. If you have no payments over time, guess what, you aren't building Payment History (there's those two words again). Many new members do not have extensive payment history. Tweaking the utilization percentage now isn't going to get you over 700, you need to show you can borrow a little bit and pay it back, and leave breadcrumbs in your credit history so the FICO score can grab hold of that and say "hey, look, this person pays back their borrowings for XX months". Does it take a while? Sure, that's why they call it history. But during the last year, has utilization management really moved the needle in your FICO quest?
Now, you will note my signature has high utilization. I am not advocating that. But my score is kept out of the toilet because I have decades of perfect Payment History. For me, working on Utilization is definitely MY action item.
MVV has an 850 FICO because of a combination of credit history and utilization management, not because of utilization management alone.
Cheers!
Very good point! The thing about utilization is it's something that we can control now. Like instant gratifiation. This morning I was thinking that I might swap cards that report a balance again. The Barclay card that usually reports only has a $2500. CL while my other Barclay card was just increased to $800. I usually let a balance between $750. and $850 report. Figure $800. average. That's 32% of that one card's available credit but it would be 10% of the other card's CL. Then I figured I can tweek the amount that reports a little more to only have $600. report so it shows about 8% utilization. Then continue that monthly.
I've had higher balances report in the past. Mainly because I had to. Now I'm able to control how much is on my cards.
I haven't looked over my reports recently but you mentioned something that I've been wondering. When high balances report, is it the high balance during anytime that you've had the card or the high balance when the statement closed. I've run some cards up close to their limit recently but had them paid off before the statement closed.
As for MVV... I did a triple take when I saw his signiture the other day then thought "ding, ding, ding.... he wins!" 
@masscredit wrote:Very good point! The thing about utilization is it's something that we can control now. Like instant gratifiation. This morning I was thinking that I might swap cards that report a balance again. The Barclay card that usually reports only has a $2500. CL while my other Barclay card was just increased to $800. I usually let a balance between $750. and $850 report. Figure $800. average. That's 32% of that one card's available credit but it would be 10% of the other card's CL. Then I figured I can tweek the amount that reports a little more to only have $600. report so it shows about 8% utilization. Then continue that monthly.
I've had higher balances report in the past. Mainly because I had to. Now I'm able to control how much is on my cards.
I haven't looked over my reports recently but you mentioned something that I've been wondering. When high balances report, is it the high balance during anytime that you've had the card or the high balance when the statement closed. I've run some cards up close to their limit recently but had them paid off before the statement closed.
As for MVV... I did a triple take when I saw his signiture the other day then thought "ding, ding, ding.... he wins!"
Unfortunately I'm not able to answer that one, because I don't ever pay before the statement cuts.
Just to explain terms as I see them,
When you swipe the card, that is the day of the charge. If one PIF, no interest starts. If one has a balance over two statements, it starts the interest clock for this transaction from this day.
There is a day the "statement closes" for new transactions. My understanding is many try to pay the balance down before this day (necessary to manage the reported balance). This is likely what you see when you look at your credit report. (If you get a copy of your credit report, and your Money software is maintained, you can usually parse which balance was used in the credit report) [This "statement close" date may or may not be the previous month's "due date" for your payment]
A few short days later, is the "Statement Date" which is printed on the PDF, and that is when any interest is posted.
Some time in this date range is the Credit Reporting date. I'm not clear on how each bank reports these, but apparently in Credit Karma they have a calendar of estimated reporting dates for each bank. The balance reported should be based on the "Statement Date" because as noted earlier, new annual fee charges are included in this amount, and they probably post on the Statement Date.
Some few weeks later is the "Due Date". PIF by this date or start interest (if not already calculating interest). At the very least, of course, pay the minimum due or risk a late pay note.
And yes, MVV and a very few others win