Number of Accounts Reporting Balances?

[sportsguy83]

I have heard different things regarding this but my basic question is whether the amount of accounts reporting a balance will make a significant difference in your score?  I have seen it mentioned that ideally you should pay off all but one and pay that one down to a low utilization and just let that one account report.

Just wondering if this is accurate?

I generally have about six cards (out of 15 TLs) I regularly use and in the past I have let those report (my utilization is rarely over 5%) but if it could make a real difference in my scores I could pay most of them down prior to them reporting a balance.

[gdale6]

Yes, the more that report the lower the score it is real, the balance doesnt matter either for this metric it could be $1

[GFer]

That is very accurate. I lose 12-15 points if I let more than one cc report at a time. However, if you aren't applying for credit anytime soon, it makes no difference. When getting ready to apply for credit, than you want 1 or 2 months of only 1 cc reporting between 1-9%. (Timing is everything in this instance).

[JagerBombs89]

Check the link in my signature... I detailed a post that reflected the more balances reporting, the more my score dropped (about 5 points per additionaly balance reporting).

[SomeGuyOnTheWeb]

You know, back before the scoring model changed, I was getting hit by the "too many accounts with a balance" line, primarily due to the way my student loans report (six currently with balances). Now when I look at my EQ, it no longer appears, though it has been replaced with "short credit history". So I'm wondering if you get less of a "ding" under the new scoring model than the old one.

[Revelate]

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@SomeGuyOnTheWeb wrote:

You know, back before the scoring model changed, I was getting hit by the "too many accounts with a balance" line, primarily due to the way my student loans report (six currently with balances). Now when I look at my EQ, it no longer appears, though it has been replaced with "short credit history". So I'm wondering if you get less of a "ding" under the new scoring model than the old one.

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My own testing suggests that FICO 8 is more sensitive actually.

Having balances on SL's, and the "too many accounts with balances" reason code don't have much if any impact on the revolving tradelines with balance calculation which we know to be a non-trivial measurement.

I did find out of my own data that I only move a handful of points for continuing to reduce my number of CC's with balances, but before where I could be wherever in the 1-4 range and not make a difference, is gone now: there's at least 2 and possibly 3 breakpoints out of 9 tradelines going from 4 to 1.  I have some wonky AAOA stuff going on at the moment, I'm hoping to really dial it in in another couple of months.

That all said, if you have a clean file (mine is mixed, aka somewhat dirty) you'll likely be penalized harsher than I will for having more than 1 revolving balance reporting.