@Anonymous wrote:
I feel like I still have this part confused but regarding credit utilization through much researching and reading i see that 1-9% of credit card usage is good but generally 30% or less.
I understand that part but what about having mulitiple cc cards???
My credit cards are
BOFA Travel Rewards
BOFA Cash Rewards
Chase United MielagePlus
Chase Saphire Preferred
Target Redcard (credit card)
I plan to honestly only use the Preferred and BOFA travel rewards depending on the subject.. and all the other cards I have just for the sake of having multiple accounts/credit limit total.
Does that mean i have to utilize every single card and post a 1% balance? or my plan was to just use the main cards and carry that small balance and pay it in full after it POSTS. If i go this way I'd still use the other cards every once in a while say once every 2 months or so for credit card activity..
Thanks
Hi Joseph! Welcome to the forums.
The advice you are getting is generally spot-on. Here's a few additional thoughts related to your questions about card use. To summarize your first post:
You have five credit cards. Only two of them you plan to ever use (if it is up to you). The other three you'd ideally like to never use -- you just want them there to give bulk to your profile and to give yourself a greater total credit limit.
Great plan for the most part. But you need to tweak it a bit. The three cards you plan to never use you will want to use occasionally (but it only needs to be a couple times a year).
First off, you should plan to use each card at least once in the 90 days after you first get it. When a card has never been used even once, it increases sharply the chance that it will be cancelled due to inactivity. For me, I just make it a rule to use it for something I needed anyway (groceries, gas, whatever) in the first week after I activiate it.
Second, the cards that you plan to almost never use you can stick in a shoebox somewhere. Just be sure that you take them out every six months and use them. Again, my advice is just take them with you one day when you are going to the grocery story. Buy an item of food with each one. Whatever works for you. Just like the first point, you are doing this to prevent them from being cancelled due to inactivity. Once every six months is fine -- no need for anything more often. (Your thought about every two months is overkill.)
A few more thoughts. You write:
My plan was to just use the main cards and carry that small balance and pay it in full after it POSTS.
A word about terminology. If you are paying the balance that appears on your statement in full, then you are not carrying a balance. To carry a balance means that you pay only a part of the Amount Owed on that statement. For example, suppose your statement says you owe $400. By the time the statement gets to you, your actual balance may be $500 (because you have made some more charges). If you pay the full $400 then you are paying in full (and not carrying). If, however, you pay only $100 (say), then the remining $300 will be carried over to your next statement and you will pay interest on that $300.
Great choice to always pay your cards in full!
Final thought: the advice to make sure that you have a small number of cards reporting a balance and to have the amounts that do report be small numbers -- this is fine to optimize your score. But you can get these extra points any time you like, by paying all cards to $0 except one (and to have the remaining card report $20 or so). You probably don't need those extra points every month, right? So just use your two big cards naturally, just like you planned, and pay them in full. If your utilization goes up to 40% or even 50% occasionally, who cares? Doesn't matter as long as you are not trying to use your score for something.
Personal Cards: Amex Plat | Amex Delta Res | CSR | Citi AA Exec Business Cards: Ink+ | Amex BGR
