Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

[HomeBuyerSpring2021]

I’m trying to keep total utilization to 9.5% (best I can do right now with cashflow) in preparation to request CLIs from 5 major credit cards in May (waiting for new credit scores that jumped 30+ points to sit on credit card issuers for 30 days before requesting). I just got CL bumps on 2 store cards from Synchrony (Amazon & Athleta), so I'm using those higher CLs in my % calculation. However, they both currently have $0 balances & I've noticed in past that Synchrony cards don't produce a statement on months I have a $0 balance. So do store cards with $0 balance get reported to credit bureaus (& therefore credit bureaus will use my higher CL in their utiliz. calculations)?

Thanks,

Kimberly

[SouthJamaica]

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@HomeBuyerSpring2021 wrote:

I’m trying to keep total utilization to 9.5% (best I can do right now with cashflow) in preparation to request CLIs from 5 major credit cards in May (waiting for new credit scores that jumped 30+ points to sit on credit card issuers for 30 days before requesting). I just got CL bumps on 2 store cards from Synchrony (Amazon & Athleta), so I'm using those higher CLs in my % calculation. However, they both currently have $0 balances & I've noticed in past that Synchrony cards don't produce a statement on months I have a $0 balance. So do store cards with $0 balance get reported to credit bureaus (& therefore credit bureaus will use my higher CL in their utiliz. calculations)?

Thanks,

Kimberly

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Yes, store cards with zero balance do get reported and will be factored into your revolving utilization.

[HomeBuyerSpring2021]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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Yes, store cards with zero balance do get reported and will be factored into your revolving utilization.

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And for anyone reading this later, I also just read in another post that 8.9% is a more favorable overall utilization to target (versus the 9.5% I mentioned in the original post).

Kimberly

[Anonymous]

That's correct. If you're shooting for 8.9% to report, pay to 8.5-8.6% so that after interest is added, you remain under the 8.9% breakpoint.

[HomeBuyerSpring2021]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That's correct. If you're shooting for 8.9% to report, pay to 8.5-8.6% so that after interest is added, you remain under the 8.9% breakpoint.

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As Homer Simpson would say, "Doh!" I only have one card that will be charging interest, but darn if I didn't even *think* about that in my calculations. Perfect example of "you don't know what you don't know." I would have been kicking myself if I'd done so much ideal planning & still messed it up. Thanks so much for pointing that out!

Kimberly

[Anonymous]

You're welcome. And none of us likely realized it until it bit us or we read that from someone else. Still, it's a mild lesson that can be corrected the next month (or sooner by requesting an off-cycle report with an amenable lender like Discover). But yeah it would be disappointing not to see an expected gain after putting in the work to get to that point.