Is 2 better than 1 in fico land?

[Anonymous]

i know i have read the answer but now that i need it of course it is lost to me.  i am now the proud owner of 2 credit cards.  i have cap1 with 2000 tcl bal around 1700.  i now have a new 1st tn visa with 0 bal 1000 tcl.  I am curious would moving atleast 1/2 the bal to my 1000 tcl card help my fico since this would lower my almost maxed out card down less than 50%.?

thanks, everyone

[haulingthescoreup]

It might a bit, although it's overall util that drives your scores, with individual util having less of an impact.

But if you BT'd some over to the $1K card, you'd have to pay a BT fee, increasing your debt and your overall util, and that might cancel out any small benefit in scores. Also, banks perk up their ears when they see people moving debt around instead of paying it off.

You'd do much, much better to just throw everything you can at that balance and get it down.


eta: also, you might get penalized for having both cards with balances, instead of just one out of two.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 04-17-2009 06:14 AM