Let me put it like this. A little over a month ago, I had 49,000 worth of credit between 15 cards. 7/15 reporting a balance. Individual utilization on each card were as follows 86% 65% 52% 38% 28% 25% and 2%.
I've since gotten increases and my overall credit is now 63,500. I BTd all my balances to my Discover card. It now sits at 76% Utilization. I now have 2 cards reporting. The second one just needs to update showing 0. It currently sits at 24%.
My current overall Utlization is 18% When the last card shows as 0, it will then be 16%.
With all that said, I've gained 30pts on Equifax.com and 27pts on Barclays website. Even with having two cards currently reporting, and 1 @ 76%.
Another thing to note: It always listed "% OF BALANCES TO CREDIT LIMITS IS TOO HIGH ON REVOLVING ACCOUNTS" as a negative factor impacting my score. That is GONE from Barclays. The only two things it now says are "Length of time Accounts have been open" and "No installment loans"
Ideally, You want all but one card reporting 0. One card reporting less than 9%
Do with this information what you may. 
@JSS3 wrote:Let me put it like this. A little over a month ago, I had 49,000 worth of credit between 15 cards. 7/15 reporting a balance. Individual utilization on each card were as follows 86% 65% 52% 38% 28% 25% and 2%.
I've since gotten increases and my overall credit is now 63,500. I BTd all my balances to my Discover card. It now sits at 76% Utilization. I now have 2 cards reporting. The second one just needs to update showing 0. It currently sits at 24%.
My current overall Utlization is 18% When the last card shows as 0, it will then be 16%.
With all that said, I've gained 30pts on Equifax.com and 27@pts on Barclays website. Even with having two cards currently reporting, and 1 @ 76%.
Another thing to note: It always listed "Revolving credit limits too high" as a negative factor impacting my score. That is GONE from Barclays. The only two things it now says are "Length of time Accounts have been open" and "No installment loans"
Ideally, You want all but one card reporting 0. One card reporting less than 9%
Do with this information what you may.
Hmmm ... I wish I had some time to experiment with number of cards reporting vs. high utilization on one card.
Ideally, You want all but one card reporting 0. One card reporting less than 9%
I agree that would be ideal, but I put a large amount of spend on my cards each month due to reimbursable travel. So paying off the whole balance is an issue of cash flow. I also want to be able to show cash reserves when apping for my HELOC
@sillykitty1 wrote:
@JSS3 wrote:Let me put it like this. A little over a month ago, I had 49,000 worth of credit between 15 cards. 7/15 reporting a balance. Individual utilization on each card were as follows 86% 65% 52% 38% 28% 25% and 2%.
I've since gotten increases and my overall credit is now 63,500. I BTd all my balances to my Discover card. It now sits at 76% Utilization. I now have 2 cards reporting. The second one just needs to update showing 0. It currently sits at 24%.
My current overall Utlization is 18% When the last card shows as 0, it will then be 16%.
With all that said, I've gained 30pts on Equifax.com and 27@pts on Barclays website. Even with having two cards currently reporting, and 1 @ 76%.
Another thing to note: It always listed "Revolving credit limits too high" as a negative factor impacting my score. That is GONE from Barclays. The only two things it now says are "Length of time Accounts have been open" and "No installment loans"
Ideally, You want all but one card reporting 0. One card reporting less than 9%
Do with this information what you may.
Hmmm ... I wish I had some time to experiment with number of cards reporting vs. high utilization on one card.
Ideally, You want all but one card reporting 0. One card reporting less than 9%
I agree that would be ideal, but I put a large amount of spend on my cards each month due to reimbursable travel. So paying off the whole balance is an issue of cash flow. I also want to be able to show cash reserves when apping for my HELOC
I have large balances. I've BT to 0% APR offers, to high utilization levels on individual cards.
I have an AMEX Reasons Letter from Feb 2014 with EX at 705. I have a TU from US Bank from August at 741.
In May 2014, I loaded a Discover BT offer, $7,700 on an $8,000 CL.
In June 2014, I loaded a BofA BT offer (MC) $8,200 on an $8,800 CL.
In August 2014, I loaded a US Bank BT offer, $12,000 on a $14,000 CL.
In Oct 2014, I loaded a BofA BT offer (AX), $10,500 on a $12,700 CL. (This is actually pulling amounts from a closed account which I think was not affecting my total utilization figures because it was on a closed $20k CL, but I was paying 7.99% APR and wanted the 0% APR). I think I can identify a -3 TU change from this trigger, though I also closed two other CC in October to keep things interesting.
INQ were the reasons my scores dipped in the last few months, now climbing back again.
All these balances are just shifting amounts around from other places, but all four are on those cards at the same time, so this is not the same dollars.
I love getting 0% APR BT offers, and you can imagine why.
I do not think moving these around to individual cards, increasing the utilization on the cards, changed my score much, because the total amount outstanding was the same, and is generally declining. TU shows that bump in total amounts outstanding, as the Closed account balance BT appeared on the BofA AMEX.
My opinion is you might see some points dip when you load up the CapOne card, but when it comes to saving interest cost, I don't worry about my FICO score. I know that my score is held down by the overall utilization, but I do not think it makes any difference whether that is all on one card at 97% or spread among all cards at 20%, at least not enough difference to worry about. And FWIW, after paying heavily on that BofA card? They gave me an automatic $3k CLI last month. Discover? They had sent me the BT offer with a temporary CLI from $5k to the $8k CL.
OP your scores are high enough, you might see some drop, but as long as you are just moving amounts around, not adding to them, I will bet it is a small drop in scores.
Good luck!
@JSS3 wrote:Empirically, you can have one but not the other.
You can have 1 card with a high utilization while all others are either at 0(or very low to offset the card with the high balance)
-Or-
Have a few cards reporting with lower balances.
This gives you a boost or won't have your score dropping too much.
I think I agree with this, provided the sum of all amounts open, regardless of number of CC, is the same $ amount.
And that is also the reason I am skeptical about the "all cards zero except 1 at 1%-9%" being meaningfully different in scores, I don't think it is meaningfully different than if that amount was spread to more cards, once scores stabilize to that pattern and total amount outstanding is still the same. It's not the many cards at zero, it's the overall low utilizatilon tolal of all cards together, because it only leaves one card with less than 10% utilization. Meaning overall utilization is very very low.
wow you have a lot of credit cards, I don't think you'll see a big boost if any after BT.
