Utilization at 2% vs 10%: affecting Credit Scores much?

[joshall]

I am just wondering, if balance on all (say 7) credit cards stay 0, but one credit card is kept at 2%, while minimum payment is paid every month, and letting the balance gradually increases to 10% in 3-6 month period. 

Will this action lower the Credit Score?

[Barry]

It could, but probably not by much. Anytime your utilization increases, no matter how it got there, you can lose some points.

[joshall]

I have a feeling that despite a small UTIL increase from 2- 3% on ONLY one card, the credit score will drop like crazy!?

lol

[gdale6]

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@joshall wrote:

I have a feeling that despite a small UTIL increase from 2- 3% on ONLY one card, the credit score will drop like crazy!?

lol

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You dont pay any interest while keeping or adjusting the reporting percentage you would pay the new balance by the due date and pay down the card from current charges to the percentage you want to report on statement cut day.

[masscredit]

I've been playing with my utilization to try to find the sweet spot to maximize my scores.  I usually just have one card reporting.  Once in awhile there is two. My scores pretty much stayed the same as long as the balances were low. There is just one card reporting this month. Balance is $453.00 on a $8K credit limit. That's 1.5% of my total available credit (that gets rounded up right?) and 5.6% of the card's credit line. Next month Im going to have that one card report 4% to see if that changes anything.  At this point, if I gain anything it will probably only be 1-3 points. I'd be surprised if I actually gain anything. 

[Anonymous]

I spent $1500 on Amex which took me from 1% to 2%, paid it off within 2 weeks.  Score dropped from 823 to 820...