Due to the erratic reporting behavior of my personal lines of credit with NFCU and PenFed, I can no longer micromanage
my balances.
Either I'm going to have to lay low on using those lines of credit, or I'm just going to have to let my utilization have its own way, or -- as Tom_Thumb might put it -- let it go "natural" 
But gone are the days of ensuring that accounts I'm using report at zero, since I never know what day of the month will be the day chosen by either of those institutions as the day to report.
@SouthJamaica wrote:Due to the erratic reporting behavior of my personal lines of credit with NFCU and PenFed, I can no longer micromanage
my balances.
Either I'm going to have to lay low on using those lines of credit, or I'm just going to have to let my utilization have its own way, or -- as Tom_Thumb might put it -- let it go "natural"
But gone are the days of ensuring that accounts I'm using report at zero, since I never know what day of the month will be the day chosen by either of those institutions as the day to report.
Welcome aboard and no worries! You have a nice aggregate CL buffer. As long as you stay under 50% reporting any Fico 8 score change directly related to # cards/accounts with balances should be a yawn.
Three times a year I let 100% of my 6 cards come out to play and post all charges on statements. It's that time again. Fico 8 and Fico 9 are not phased by such behavior. However, Fico 04, specifically the EQ's tweaked version drop rather dramatically - 45 points (vs score with 2 or 3 reporting). This happens even though AG UT is held belo 3%.
No desire to see the temporary Fico 04 and Fico 98 beat down this time around so no 3B report.
@Anonymous wrote:Hey SJ! The good news in your case (as I am sure you know) is that you have such a ginormous number of credit cards that there surely will be no scoring difference whether 4 cards report a positive balance or 1 card reports a positive balance. You'll still have the overwhelming number of your accounts reporting $0 (over 80% of them).
Incidentally, if you still want to keep all accounts but one reporting $0, couldn't you just use the billpay feature of a checking account to push a little bit more than you need to into them four days before the earliest possible statement date? Even if the balance is a small negative number, it will still report $0 -- right?
It doesn't matter about the statement date, because they are not reporting the statement balances.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:Due to the erratic reporting behavior of my personal lines of credit with NFCU and PenFed, I can no longer micromanage
my balances.
Either I'm going to have to lay low on using those lines of credit, or I'm just going to have to let my utilization have its own way, or -- as Tom_Thumb might put it -- let it go "natural"
But gone are the days of ensuring that accounts I'm using report at zero, since I never know what day of the month will be the day chosen by either of those institutions as the day to report.
Welcome aboard and no worries! You have a nice aggregate CL buffer. As long as you stay under 50% reporting any Fico 8 score change directly related to # cards/accounts with balances should be a yawn.
Three times a year I let 100% of my 6 cards come out to play and post all charges on statements. It's that time again. Fico 8 and Fico 9 are not phased by such behavior. However, Fico 04, specifically the EQ's tweaked version drop rather dramatically - 45 points (vs score with 2 or 3 reporting). This happens even though AG UT is held belo 3%.
No desire to see the temporary Fico 04 and Fico 98 beat down this time around so no 3B report.
Actually it's the mortgage scores that concern me, because those are usually my weakest link.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:Due to the erratic reporting behavior of my personal lines of credit with NFCU and PenFed, I can no longer micromanage
my balances.
Either I'm going to have to lay low on using those lines of credit, or I'm just going to have to let my utilization have its own way, or -- as Tom_Thumb might put it -- let it go "natural"
But gone are the days of ensuring that accounts I'm using report at zero, since I never know what day of the month will be the day chosen by either of those institutions as the day to report.
Welcome aboard and no worries! You have a nice aggregate CL buffer. As long as you stay under 50% reporting any Fico 8 score change directly related to # cards/accounts with balances should be a yawn.
Three times a year I let 100% of my 6 cards come out to play and post all charges on statements. It's that time again. Fico 8 and Fico 9 are not phased by such behavior. However, Fico 04, specifically the EQ's tweaked version drop rather dramatically - 45 points (vs score with 2 or 3 reporting). This happens even though AG UT is held belo 3%.
No desire to see the temporary Fico 04 and Fico 98 beat down this time around so no 3B report.
Actually it's the mortgage scores that concern me, because those are usually my weakest link.
Well, I don't see a drop on Fico mortgage scores until I let more than 3 of my cards report balances. At 4 of 6 (67%) I experienced a 5 point drop on EQ and no drop on TU or EX. I experience a significant Fico mortgage impact at 5 of 6 (83%) for EQ and 6 of 6 (100%) for TU/EX. (see paste below for details)
SJ - Just limit use on your cards each month to under 30% of total # and you should be good to go. Really you shouldn't experience a significant point drop (say more than 10) on your mortgage scores until you allow more than 50% to report a balance.
@Anonymous wrote:Ah. I see, well I am sure it won't matter to your score, given your huge number of credit cards.
I'm not so sure about that, but I don't t think it will make a huge difference.
How often do you use those LOCs anyway?
Everything I have I use every month.
I imagine that for any particular purchase, there's some credit card that is better suited then those accounts.
Not really. Some of my payments penalize me for using a credit card. Other payments are simply more conveniently made by check than by credit card.
E.g. some 2% or 3% or 5% cash back card. Am I mistaken?
This will probably surprise you. I don't actually decide on which credit cards to use that way. It would be logical but something in my brain resists being directed by a bank as to how to pay for stuff. So I just rotate my cards. Yes I prefer getting 3% cash back to getting nothing back, but I don't care enough about it to let that alter my way of doing things. E.g., I use my Ring card, which is my favorite credit card, to make some purchases every month, which makes no sense at all, but I like to appease the Ring gods. I know I'm leaving money on the table, but I prefer that to leaving some of my precious brain cells on the table.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:Due to the erratic reporting behavior of my personal lines of credit with NFCU and PenFed, I can no longer micromanage
my balances.
Either I'm going to have to lay low on using those lines of credit, or I'm just going to have to let my utilization have its own way, or -- as Tom_Thumb might put it -- let it go "natural"
But gone are the days of ensuring that accounts I'm using report at zero, since I never know what day of the month will be the day chosen by either of those institutions as the day to report.
Welcome aboard and no worries! You have a nice aggregate CL buffer. As long as you stay under 50% reporting any Fico 8 score change directly related to # cards/accounts with balances should be a yawn.
Three times a year I let 100% of my 6 cards come out to play and post all charges on statements. It's that time again. Fico 8 and Fico 9 are not phased by such behavior. However, Fico 04, specifically the EQ's tweaked version drop rather dramatically - 45 points (vs score with 2 or 3 reporting). This happens even though AG UT is held belo 3%.
No desire to see the temporary Fico 04 and Fico 98 beat down this time around so no 3B report.
Actually it's the mortgage scores that concern me, because those are usually my weakest link.
Well, I don't see a drop on Fico mortgage scores until I let more than 3 of my cards report balances. At 4 of 6 (67%) I experienced a 5 point drop on EQ and no drop on TU or EX. I experience a significant Fico mortgage impact at 5 of 6 (83%) for EQ and 6 of 6 (100%) for TU/EX. (see paste below for details)
SJ - Just limit use on your cards each month to under 30% of total # and you should be good to go. Really you shouldn't experience a significant point drop (say more than 10) on your mortgage scores until you allow more than 50% to report a balance.
I'm comforted by that, thank you I should be able to manage staying within those guidelines