Is it better for your FICO scores to have small cc balances reporting or zero balances

[NRB525]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

What is causing your EX to be so much lower than the others?

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There seem to be more negatives there, and more inquiries.

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More negatives? You have negatives (lates) and over 700, or you just have a lot of INQ?

[NRB525]

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@Vulcan1600 wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

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I am of the opinion that consistently reporting small balances will not make a noticeable difference in FICO scores, compared to the common practice here to "keep all reporting balances at zero but one". Many report a small drop in score for letting a balance go from zero to reporting something, but I think that is due to the "new debt" aspect, and that if allowed to report consistently, the score would recover.

What is causing your EX to be so much lower than the others?

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This is all new to me also and curious if I should be reporting small balances or not either so reading these comments closely. My EQ and TU are both close but my EX is also a bit lower too.

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Your scores are already at 800, congratulations!

Apparently carrying whatever balances you do is not penalizing you too much.

[Kirmie2010]

7-9% seems best for me.  If too many cards report 0 balance my score drops a few points.  If I owe 20% or more overall, my score starts to drop a little bit every few points up to 38% or so then levels out.

Not that its right, just what ive observed over the past year.

[SouthJamaica]

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More negatives? You have negatives (lates) and over 700, or you just have a lot of INQ?

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My negatives are from very long ago. My record's been perfect since 2006.