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@Anonymous wrote:
@Subexistence wrote:So if I had 2 cards one of which is Discover reporting 6% utilization, and the other is not being used and reporting 0% utilization, then I would be hurting.
Hurting relative to what? Relative to having both cards report 0%, you're in a better place with one of the two reporting a small balance.
Relative to maximizing your score for the utilization sector of scoring, you'd need to add 1 more card to your revolver collection so that you have the ability to let 1 of 3 report a small balance (33%) which is a number less than 50% and greater than 0% which is believed to be the most ideal situation.
Basically with only 2 cards you are doing the best you can (letting 1 of 2 report a small balance) but you could be doing better with the addition of a 3rd card.
I'm saying that like 2 cards with small balance may be better than just 1 card with small blance. I'm not actually going to use my 2 cards even if using 2 cards does turn out to be beneficial.
If you let both of your cards (100%) report small balances relative to just 1 of 2 (50%) you wouldn't receive a score increase. On some profiles that may result in a score drop where on others it may result in the score remaining the same, but I do not believe anyone would receive a score increase in going from 50% to 100% cards reporting.
Well I let all my card report a statement balance and ended up -2 ex, +1 eq and -3 tu, util under 10%, go figure. So really not a material factor.
A while back I was worried from what everyone stated having on card reporting over 30% and I had one report 60%, my FU report 15k and I had no change in my scores and no change when I paid in full the next month when it reported 0 w/ four cards reporting a statement balance. Total util was in the low teens and 7%-8% the following month.
What I'm trying to say is everyone's profile is different and what happens to one won't necessarily happen to the other.
@redpat wrote:Well I let all my card report a statement balance and ended up -2 ex, +1 eq and -3 tu, util under 10%, go figure. So really not a material factor.
A while back I was worried from what everyone stated having on card reporting over 30% and I had one report 60%, my FU report 15k and I had no change in my scores and no change when I paid in full the next month when it reported 0 w/ four cards reporting a statement balance. Total util was in the low teens and 7%-8% the following month.
What I'm trying to say is everyone's profile is different and what happens to one won't necessarily happen to the other.
^ Quite true, scoring factors are weighed differently depending on which scorecard your profile is assigned. Even within a given scorecard, results may vary.
For many profiles allowing a balance to report utilization up to 69% on a single card has no impact on score if aggregate utilization is maintained below 9%. Significant score penalties on a single card may not come into play until a 70% UT threshold is exceeded or even until "a max out condition" is reached - which I peg at 90%. I did not see a score drop when one of my cards reported 75% UT
I don't think there are utilization scoring penalties - regardless of profile - if aggregate UT is under 9% and individual card UT is less than 29%. Thus, the broad based guideline of:under 30% UT on cards.
In truth, many profiles should be able to report UT on an individual card up to 49% with minimal (or no) impact on score as long as other open cards not reporting balances contribute enough to aggregate CL to keep aggregate UT under 9%. So, the "under 50% utilization on an individual card" is also a good general rule of thumb.
I just had the exact same thing happen to me, mine went down 10 points because I paid off a card. I actually just paid off several cards that haven't reported yet, I hope each one of them doesn't ding me 10 points. It seems as if they want them low (like 10% of available) but not paid off. Makes absolutely no sense to me. i'm hoping it's a temporary ding, but we shall see.
You shouldn't receive a 10 point drop from paying off a single card unless it was your final card with a balance that has now reported no balance. 10 points is typically a bit low for that though; usually one would expect a score drop more in the ballpark of 15-20 points from reporting all zero balances across all revolvers.
And no, a person wouldn't receive multiple 10 point drops as they paid off multiple cards so don't worry about that happening.