BALANCES ON SOME?

[Anonymous]

Leaving a small balance on ONE card is the best way to maximize credit score based on utilization.

On some credit profiles, depending on what credit scorecard "bucket" you may be in, leaving a small balance on multiple cards may ding your FICO score.  Leaving no balance on any cards will definitely ding your score no matter what scorecard "bucket" you may be in.  When I went from $0 on every card to $5 on one card, my score jumped 20 points and I have the dirtiest scorecard imaginable right now.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help

[Anonymous]

Very welcome.  Helpful feedback from ABCD.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Leaving a small balance on ONE card is the best way to maximize credit score based on utilization.

On some credit profiles, depending on what credit scorecard "bucket" you may be in, leaving a small balance on multiple cards may ding your FICO score.  Leaving no balance on any cards will definitely ding your score no matter what scorecard "bucket" you may be in.  When I went from $0 on every card to $5 on one card, my score jumped 20 points and I have the dirtiest scorecard imaginable right now

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ABCD2199.......What do you mean by "Scorecard Bucket"......

[Anonymous]

The way that FICO works, as well as other credit scoring organizations, is that they lump all borrowers into a variety of "buckets" or "scorecards" or "tiers" as groups.  Different credit scoring companies, like FICO, may have 10 or 12 or more groups they put anyone into.

One group/scorecard/bucket may be considered "People with only one collection" and another might be "People who have a bankruptcy or public record reported" while another group may be "People who have no negative reporting but have an average age of accounts of 48-59 months".

Once you are in a particular bucket, you will be judged/measured/scored against everyone else in that group.  When you switch buckets/scorecards, your score may go up or down just because you are measured against new people in a new group!

There is no possible way to know what scorecard category you are in except by guessing.  The only reason we all know these scorecards exists is because FICO and other credit scoring companies have admitted they do this.

[Anonymous]

This is a post from 2008 which may not reflect the most recent FICO08 model used by many lenders, and definitely does not reflect the newer FICO09 model which isn't popular yet but may soon become more popular.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/FICO-Scoring-Buckets-or-quot-Scorecards-q...

[Anonymous]

Nice overview of the idea of scorecards, ABCD.

Some definite things are known about the scorecards for FICO 8.  It is known for sure that there are exactly 12 of them, and that of these 8 of them are for clean profiles.  (Profiles with no derogs or only very mild ones, e.g. a few Day 30 lates.)

For the clean profiles, there are exactly three factors for scorecard assignment:

(1)  Age of Oldest Account

(2)  Age of Youngest Account

(3)  Total Number of Accounts (closed and open together)

Each scorecard has a maximum "ceiling" -- i.e. the maximum possible score permitted.  More than one scorecard permits an 850.  (I have no idea whether it is two scorecards, three, or four.)

An example of a clean scorecard with a much more restricted ceiling would be a person very new to credit with only 1-2 accounts. 

An example of a person in an unrestricted scorecard (other end of the spectrum) would be someone with several accounts, an age of youngest at 2.3 years, and an Age of Oldest at 17 years. 

In between are other scorecards.

Contributor Thomas Thumb knows a lot more about the various scorecards.

[Anonymous]

Wow-----You guys know your stuff

[HeavenOhio]

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@Anonymous wrote:
…Again, the due date is the date that you were supposed to make a payment on that Amount from the statement.  If you pay the amount on that statement in full (pay In Full or PIF) by the due date, then you will not be charged interest.

At this point, you should locate your last three statements for all your credit cards.  Find them online if you need to.  Read though what I wrote above and check the actual statements so that you can begin to understand when your cycles are, when the statements print, and then the due date is typically for each statement.

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It's important to understand that while due dates are always the same from month to month, the statement cut/print/post date can vary by a day or two. I've seen it anywhere from three to eight days after the due date. Capital One consistently cuts statements three days after the due date. But AMEX's statement cut dates can vary by two or three days. Sometimes, the statement cut date is made obvious when you log into your account. In other cases, it's kind of camouflaged, and you may have to look at the statements themselves. That's why CCID suggested looking at your last three statements so you'll know what you're up against.

Of course, the due date is very important in terms of being on time and avoiding interest. But it's less important in terms of paying to zero for reporting purposes. I look at as a signal that the statement will cut in a couple of days.

As several posts have mentioned, most cards report the statement balance on the day that the statement prints. All of mine do that. But there are exceptions, with US Bank being the poster child. Also, Chase cards will report zero mid-cycle whenever you pay to zero. That's a good thing most of the time. But it means that you have to play a little game if you want a Chase card to continuously report something greater than zero. The simplest thing is to choose something other than a Chase card for your non-zero balance.

[Anonymous]

I keep track of my pay dates and statement dates on my CC spreadsheet -- I also can confirm that some banks vary their statement dates, while others are always on the same date of every month.

I've never had interest accrue on a credit card since I started tracking, so I have no idea if interest will post on statement cut and blow out any utilization plans.