How many credit cards should you have reporting?

[gh17]

To maximize your credit card in a given month, how many credit cards should you have reporting (i.e. how many should you pay off before the bill vs. how many should you let a balance report)?

Should it always be just one reporting, or is it more like a certain fraction of your accounts?  Or does no one know?

[myjourney]

Pay off all but one letting the one report a balance between 1-9% 

When statements cuts pay it off

Edit if you aren't applying for any new credit you can let each and every card report a balance 

[gh17]

Yeah I know it doesn't matter unless I'm applying for something since it's memoryless.

Is it specifically one card, or if you had like twelve cards (I don't but am curious) would one vs. two make a difference?

[myjourney]

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@gh17 wrote:
Yeah I know it doesn't matter unless I'm applying for something since it's memoryless.

Is it specifically one card, or if you had like twelve cards (I don't but am curious) would one vs. two make a difference?

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Sorry for the late response (1) card 

[Lechte]

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@gh17 wrote:
Yeah I know it doesn't matter unless I'm applying for something since it's memoryless.

Is it specifically one card, or if you had like twelve cards (I don't but am curious) would one vs. two make a difference?

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I have 7 CC's....2 were reporting...I paid 1 off and didn't see a score change.  

[user5387]

FICO utilization scoring looks at the proportion of cards with reported balances.

I believe that this is a lesser issue than some others such as overall utilization, maxed cards, derogatories, and so on.

[DaveSignal]

I have tested this and, for my own profile, I can have 2 or 3 cards reporting balances and will have the same score as 1 card reporting.  Which is why I think it is a percentage.... you will definately notice a score hit if you have 50% or more cards reporting balances.  myFICO generally encourages 1 card as the best option because, if you don't know what the percentage is to max your score, 1 card will surely do it, regardless of how many cards you have.

[bettercreditguy1]

I too follow the belief that unless you are applying for a mortage or major loan, then  don't worry. I can say that when I have more than 5 trade lines with balances report in a given month, TU always goes down. Don't forget that trade lines also include your auto, mortage, student, and heloc loans. In my case I have a mortage, 2 auto loans, and whatever joint cc  my wife uses plus my individual cc's I may use. Six or seven reporting trades do not seem to change EQ or EXP.

[TRC_WA]

I've tested the waters in the whole PIF vs carry a balance game and apparently creditors don't like it even if that balance is $1.

A while back I hit the luv button for an increase on one of my $500 gas cards and received a soft pull denial letter a week later stating "too many accounts with balances."

In reality it was my $7k card with a balance of $3000 on a 6 month 0% promotion...  all the rest of my cards with limits between $750 and $7500 all had balances of less than $50.  I was letting them report balances after learning the hard way with Walmart that having a $0 balance doesn't generate a monthly statement.

My point is you would think they would say 'Oh, a $40 balance on a $2200 card?  We like that!"  but it seems as if they are counting it against me.  Of course I would actually have to let all the accounts report $0 to confirm that... LOL

[user5387]

FICO scoring looks at the proportion of accounts with balances, and separately looks at the overall utilization and maxed cards.

Even if the balances are very low, I believe that they have picked up a behavioral issue that is used to predict the future.

For example, if someone has 20 cards, and each has a $5 balance, the total amount of money is insignificant, but the behavior is considered to be unusual.