Leaving card at $0 balance

[RW771]

ok so I know this sounds like a silly question, but what affect does leaving a department store card at a $0 balance have? I paid it off before my last statement reported and it reported as a $0 balance. I haven't used it since paying it down and it will be reporting tomorrow, still as a $0 balance.

I had been working on improving my credit scores the past few months and now that I've gotten approved and will be closing on my house in 2 weeks, I'm not so overly concerned with playing the balance game in order to gain as many points as possible. Will the balance reporting as $0 for a 2nd time have a negative impact on my score?

TIA!

[Juan123]

i assume it'll lower your utilization thus raising your score so no, it won't have a negative impact

[Booner72]

Only if THAT CARD is your only revolving could it hurt your score.  All 0 balances is bad for the FICO bc they think you aren't using your credit responsibly.  Like, just not using it at all.  Stupid, I know.  So let one card report a small balance. 

[morganirish]

YMMV- a couple of years ago I had one cc with a 300. cl.   Whenever I let so much as a dollar report my score would either go down or not change.  But whenever I let 0 report my score would go up.  Now that I have several cc's, I get dinged when I let them all report 0.   

[GregB]

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@morganirish wrote:

YMMV- a couple of years ago I had one cc with a 300. cl.   Whenever I let so much as a dollar report my score would either go down or not change.  But whenever I let 0 report my score would go up.  Now that I have several cc's, I get dinged when I let them all report 0.   

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If you only have one CC then it wouldn't be very unusual for it to report $0. If you use credit to the point where you have several, it does seem a bit unusual for all of them to report $0.

The original poster's question was will his FICO be affected if a card that reported $0 last month does the same this month. I am quite sure the answer to THAT question is "no".

[morganirish]

yes I understand what the OP asked.    I was replying my experience.   YMMV. 

[AndySoCal]

I would say no it would not hurt your score. I have 5 credit cards usually two or three will have a balance. I have a VISA and store card that have not reported a balance in months I do not see any difference in my scores.

[marty56]

For my credit profile, TU never dings me for 0% util but I loose a few points on EQ.  Best to test it out.  LOL shouldn't be too hard to get a balance to report. In any case having your util controlled by being CC debt free is an ideal state for any credit profile.

[Anonymous]

+1 to Gregg. 

[RobertEG]

While its exact weighting in scoring is not known, FICO also scores the number of open revolving lines of credit with a balance, apparently as a percent of all your open revolving lines of credit.  Thus, a single $ on a card would score it from a card with no balance to a card with a balance, thus increasing your percent of revolving with a balance.  The lower your total number of revolving accounts, the greater the impact of that one card on calculating the % with balances.

Just something else to ponder.....