@CramEikowrote:
There’s a post on the forums somewhere that discusses the minimum $’s amounts for certain cards that will report. Too little $ it won’t matter. Too much it’s a strike against you. Very confusing... Maybe someone with have that post info handy. If I’m not mistaken it’s a growing list almost like the backdoor number post????
From a practical perspective it is really simple: $5.
There are really rare exceptions, like the BOA Better Balance Rewards card, where the issuer might forgive a $5.23 balance at the end of the quarter (so that BOA doesn't have to pay him the $30 quarterly bonus). But that doesn't have to do with the bureaus or FICO. It has to do with that particular product and a person deliberately skating close to the edge of its rewards structure.
$5 is overkill for some cards: $2 would be enough. But it's just simpler to go with $5 if you have a definite need for the card to report a balance.
You also wrote "Too much it’s a strike against you." Yeah, but that's the straightforward issue of having a high utilization on a card. Just don't do that. Keeping a card at < 29% should be fine, as long as one's total utilization is also very low (< 9%). So it you had a $300 credit limit on one card and a total credit limit of $1000, you could let the one card go as high $86.
If you need a really simple rule, make it this:
All cards at zero except one. Remaining card at $5-15.
That's only needed before an important application for credit, when you need every extra possible point.
