Hi there!
Have you heard of the AZEO method (All Zero Except One)? It's when you allow one card to report a small balance, while the others report zero. If that's possible for you, you should consider doing it. If not, try to lower the balances on all your cards in amount that works for you. 
More on the AZEO method here: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/ABCD2199-s-Eleven-Rules-to-Credit-Rebuilding...
There's a fine line between higher FICO scores and paying too much in interest. If the higher FICO scores will result in a loan that saves you enough to offset the higher interest paid on the cards, then that strategy could indeed work out. Without knowing the limits of the cards and balances, it's difficult to even speculate what would work best for you. Having balances at or above 30%, 50%, and 90% certainly cause downward movement in scores. If you have 8 cards then you do take a small penalty for having balances on 50% or more of your cards, so you would at least get those points for only having balances on 3 cards. So it really depends on how high those balances would be compared to their credit lines. And of course every credit profile is different so any score reactions are really only educated guesses.
Generally lower balances on fewer cards, and fewer cards with balance is best.
The term “high balances”is easy to misunderstand. Can you list out which cards you have, the limits and last statement balance?
The term “high balances”is easy to misunderstand. Can you list out which cards you have, the limits and last statement balance?
@armywifelong03 wrote:
Hi all! We are preparing for a new construction loan and are working feverishly to pay down our cards. We have impeccable credit but high balances which is weighing our score down a little.
Would it be best to have low balances on all cards (we have two with zero) or we have the opportunity to do a few free balance transfer with a way lower apr. Should we do this and have 3 cards with high balances and 5 with zero? Or lower balances on all cards?
Which would help our score more?
If you're preparing for a construction loan you should forget about saving money on interest with balance transfers. You should just be maximizing your mortgage scores.
The best things you can do are:
1. NOT apply for any accounts
2. NOT apply for any CLI's that would invoke a hard pull
3. Try to have as many accounts reporting zero balance as possible, preferably all but one
4. With the one or few that do report a balance, the balance should be as low as possible but more than $5.
@armywifelong03 wrote:
I absolutely will list my cards after dinner. I should also point out that we won’t be to the building point until December. So, we have about 5-6 months to get the work done. I just wasn’t sure if we should work to get them all below 30% and then to ZERO, or pick them off one at a time.
@Anonymous order in which you do it doesn't matter, because the numbers won't count until the last few months before applying for the loan. At that time, the more zeroes you have the better, and the lower the utilization percentage on your highest utilization percentage card the better. As @HeavenOhio wisely points out, (a) you should get rid of the small balance, so that you'll be down to 3 accounts carrying balances, (b) you should bring the other accounts down evenly from a percentage perspective, since the one with the highest percentage will be the one dragging your scores down, and (c) it would be good if you could get everything down to 28% or less.