Question on letting $2 report...

[My_Fako]

Hey, 

Anyone know if it matters... If you let $2 dollars report on a Major or Store? ( optimal utilization) 

Thanks 

[Anonymous]

Bumping your question to ask clarifying question.

Are all your other cards at 0%?  Also are you doing this for a particular reason? I played around with my utilization because I'm preparing for a mortgage in less than 6 months. I had 7 cards and 6 of them were reporting at 0 the other is reporting less than 1 percent. I gained a few points by doing this,  but I do not think it has to be 2 dollars just anything that keeps you under 1%

[My_Fako]

Yes getting ready to pay account's. All to $0 but one. I just wasn't sure if it had to be a Major reporting 1% OR it could be a store card.  If this makes sense... 

[gdale6]

Anything amount reporting below 1% is rounded to 1% so a 2 bal should suffice for usage on 1 card. Matters not if store or bankcard.

[Anonymous]

Yes, makes perfect sense. To my knowledge, it doesn't matter if it's a department store or a major CC that is reporting a balance as far as utilization is concerned. I tend to only use a major,  but that's becausei i'm usually taking advantage of a 0 % financing offer.  Hopefully others will chime in. 

[Bay_Area_Joe]

There has been a lot of talk about this.

I know for my file, having exactly $ 2.00 balance report on 1 card, all others report 0.

That achieved the best score for me.  I gained 11 points.  I am now at 808 on MyFico Experian.

J

[AzaleaB]

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@Bay_Area_Joe wrote:

There has been a lot of talk about this.

I know for my file, having exactly $ 2.00 balance report on 1 card, all others report 0.

That achieved the best score for me.  I gained 11 points.  I am now at 808 on MyFico Experian.

J

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So does your score drop if you report $3 or $5 or $10? I know this $2 thing is mentioned on CB but don't get it.

[takeshi74]

Best way to answer is to test and see.  Everyone's credit profile isn't identical and neither is impact.

[DU556]

OP, i hope you don't mind me thread jacking right not but my question is related to small balances reporting and causing fluctuations.

There have been several times where I'm reporting between 3-5% which translates to about $60 and i make a $40 purchase causing my balance % to increase by "over 50". When this happens, i lose points because my debt as increased but it doesn't make sense. The limit on that card was around $5k so i don't understand why these fluctuations occur.

If you leave a $2 balance and make a $10 purchase, you still have to be careful because your % of debt has increased by over 300-500%. Or what ever the number might be

[NRB525]

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@DU556 wrote:
OP, i hope you don't mind me thread jacking right not but my question is related to small balances reporting and causing fluctuations.

There have been several times where I'm reporting between 3-5% which translates to about $60 and i make a $40 purchase causing my balance % to increase by "over 50". When this happens, i lose points because my debt as increased but it doesn't make sense. The limit on that card was around $5k so i don't understand why these fluctuations occur.

If you leave a $2 balance and make a $10 purchase, you still have to be careful because your % of debt has increased by over 300-500%. Or what ever the number might be

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No, I don't think this is a measure within FICO. The absolute dollar change amount is used in certain aspects of the algorithm, but a change from $2 to $10 on the same revolver would be virtually ignored. That 5x change to $10 would use the change to $10, not the 5x factor, and the change to $10 is not enough of a dollar change.

Now, if you went from $2,000 to $10,000 on the card, THAT would get the attention of the algorithm, but because of the $8,000 increase, not because of any 5x factor of the debt amount.