How does small balances reporting impact score?

[jons998877]

With my overall utlization below 29% now, I keep letting a few cards report small balances (Amazon, Kohls, Target) from normal use, paid in full before due date.. this month I had Target with $19 with $1000K CL and Lowes with $21 on $2000 CLI... am I losing any points there???

[Anonymous]

Yes, you are. For maximum score boost you should only have 1 card reporting a small balance of $5-10. So i would PIF all those outliers before the statment cut date. However, since you're at 29% UT you're still going to lose some points. You should only be at 8.9% UT if possible.

[SouthJamaica]

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@jons998877 wrote:

With my overall utlization below 29% now, I keep letting a few cards report small balances (Amazon, Kohls, Target) from normal use, paid in full before due date.. this month I had Target with $19 with $1000K CL and Lowes with $21 on $2000 CLI... am I losing any points there???

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In my experience the difference between a couple of cards with balance and one card with balance is nonexistent in FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores, but may have some impact in the older scoring models, such as the mortgage scores.

HOWEVER (and this is a big however).....  according to prevailing thought in this forum, at least one of the cards reporting a balance should be a bank card rather than a store card. If your only reported balance is a store card you might get hit with the "all zero" penalty.

[jons998877]

Thanks.... RIght now my only card with a carried balance is my Venture Card, right now at about $2800 with CL of $3500... total credit lines are about $12K..

[Ficoproblems247]

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@jons998877 wrote:

With my overall utlization below 29% now, I keep letting a few cards report small balances (Amazon, Kohls, Target) from normal use, paid in full before due date.. this month I had Target with $19 with $1000K CL and Lowes with $21 on $2000 CLI... am I losing any points there???

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It also depends on individual score cards and profile. For me, AZEO has 0 effect on FICO 8s. Actually my breakpoint for maximum points gained on my FICO 2 even is somewhere between 60-80% cards reporting, meaning that letting 60% of my cards report a balance  vs. AZEO makes no difference in my EX mortgage scores.  So the full answer to that question can only really be answered by watching your different FICO versions and seeing how each reacts to different balances reporting. AZEO I believe has a more potent effect on cleaner/thinner profiles. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@jons998877 wrote:

Thanks.... RIght now my only card with a carried balance is my Venture Card, right now at about $2800 with CL of $3500... total credit lines are about $12K..

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I wasn't talking about carried balances, I was talking about reported balances.

In any event I misunderstood your original post. I thought you were saying that the 3 store cards were the only cards reporting a balance.

Where you are losing points (and money) is with that high utilization Venture card. If you care about your scores you need to get that one down to 28% or less.