@MsMoneypeso wrote:Yes, you should report a balance occasionally.
I was checking my mortgage score, and one CRA dinged me for not using revolving credit. What? I had a couple of CC that would show up with a small balance, and a few others where I was aggressively paying them down and a bunch showing 0..
And you should probably show the balance on different cards at different times.
It's well know around here that mortgage scores react best to AZEO, or All Zero Except One, wherein you have ALL cards Except for one at $0 balance. The one you leave a small balance on must be a bankcard (i.e. no store card such as the Lowes card or Home Depot or Target, etc.) and the balance must no be so small that it gets rounded down to 0% utilization.
@WomanITGeek wrote:Rebuilt my credit and now im conscious of making sure my cards report 0 before statement cut except 1. But should a high balance report at least once in a while to show the banks you are capable of paying it all off?
Thoughts? I am thinking of letting my Amex Gold report the $11 grand and change balance I have right now, Citi Custom Cash about $1600 and CFU about $650 and then pay it all off once the statement cuts.
Will this have the opposite affect and spook them instead?
1. There's nothing to be gained by having a high balance report, with most cards and in most scoring models.
2. The Amex Gold is a charge card, not a credit card, and is disregarded by most scoring models for percentage dollar utilization purposes.
3. There is an arcane benefit that could be achieved by allowing a high balance to report once on the Gold. A few of the older scoring models still do count the Amex charge cards for dollar utilization percentage purposes, and use the "high balance" as though it were a credit limit.
@SouthJamaica wrote:3. There is an arcane benefit that could be achieved by allowing a high balance to report once on the Gold. A few of the older scoring models still do count the Amex charge cards for dollar utilization percentage purposes, and use the "high balance" as though it were a credit limit.
Good point. However, my experience is that creditor's determine the reported "high balance" and will use the highest balance ever carried on a card, not just highest statement balance. In other words, it's not necessary to show a high statement balance to bump this field up.
@hdporter wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:3. There is an arcane benefit that could be achieved by allowing a high balance to report once on the Gold. A few of the older scoring models still do count the Amex charge cards for dollar utilization percentage purposes, and use the "high balance" as though it were a credit limit.
Good point. However, my experience is that creditor's determine the reported "high balance" and will use the highest balance ever carried on a card, not just highest statement balance. In other words, it's not necessary to show a high statement balance to bump this field up.
I used to think that but I've seen conflicting reports on that issue, so I just don't know for sure.
