You're fine to use the card as intended. Just make a large payment before the statement cuts so you have less than 9% reporting. I would also let your creditor know that you'll be traveling so you don't run into any problems using your card overseas.
Yes the UTI is when the statement cuts. Mine cuts on the 27th so i pay everything down by the 26th. Sometimes I've even paid on the 20th, 23rd and 26th. lol
You can get there.
When you were overseas were you in the military? If so I along with many on the board can't stress how great Navy Federal is.
@Anonymous wrote:Hey everyone, first post. Been browsing on here for a bit, but haven't found an exact answer to what I was looking for. If this is already posted somewhere else feel free to just point me in the right direction, however I was just looking for clarification on a few things.
I moved to Japan in my twenties (I'm currently 31) and moved back to the US and got my first US credit card (Discover IT) in January. In July I received my first FICO score (771) so I decided to apply for another card. I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but was denied due to lack of credit history. I found while visiting Japan earlier this summer that Discover is basically non-existent overseas, so I applied for a Bank of America Travel Rewards card since it's Visa branded and charges no international fees.
My limit on that card is $1100, but to earn the sign up bonus on the card you have to spend $1000 within the first 90 days. I'm heading over to Europe this weekend, and I believe I can do a decent amount of spending that could cover a large majority of that, but I don't want to mess up my utilization ratio which brings me to my questoin.
I've read that it's preferrable to keep your utilization between 0-9%, but I'm unsure if that means at all possible times, or simply when the card actually reports? Obviously if the former is true there's no possible way I can do that and earn the bonus, as even if I were to do the "less than 30%" rule of thumb, I still wouldn't be able to make the bonus, as one month I'd have to go over 30% utilization to make the cut.
If the latter, does it really matter how much I spend on any purchase as long as I immediately pay it off in full the day it posts (assuming it's not to close to the cut off day for my monthly statement), say if I were to buy a plane ticket or something like that? Or say during one month I made four or five purchases around $100 but immediately payed them off before making another purchase, which in total would be over 30%, but the charges would never exist on my bill at any one time together?
If anyone has some insight it would be greatly appreciated. I just want to maintain a decent score so I can reapply for one of the Chase "big boy cards" for travel once my credit history is established enough.
Any input is much appreciated. I've already learned a fair deal just from browsing the boards, and really am grateful for all the advice you guys have contributed.
Cheers!
It's real simple. In FICO the utilization is almost invariably based on the balance in the statement. So if you pay it down before the statement cuts, you're good. You can use that card over and over again, just make sure you're paying it down fast enough not to go over the limit, and make sure that when the statement cuts you're under 29%.
