@folks19 wrote:If I pay my balance in full before my statement arrives, and I have a balance of 0, does that count as a making a payment (for the purpose of having positive information and to raise the percentage of on time payments), or is that equivalent to not spending at all and therefore not owing anything?
I hope the question is clear. Let me know if I need to clarify something!
@folks19 It counts towards positive payment. However, reporting 0% utilization will give you the All Zero scoring penalty. You want to report individual utilization between 1-29% utilization and aggregate between 1-9% utilization.
I would recommend reading the below from ABCD2199
My 11 Rules to Credit Rebuilding See rule # 3
Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20
@folks19 wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
@folks19 wrote:If I pay my balance in full before my statement arrives, and I have a balance of 0, does that count as a making a payment (for the purpose of having positive information and to raise the percentage of on time payments), or is that equivalent to not spending at all and therefore not owing anything?
I hope the question is clear. Let me know if I need to clarify something!
@folks19 It counts towards positive payment. However, reporting 0% utilization will give you the All Zero scoring penalty. You want to report individual utilization between 1-29% utilization and aggregate between 1-9% utilization.
I would recommend reading the below from ABCD2199
My 11 Rules to Credit Rebuilding See rule # 3
Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20Thanks for the info. That was helpful!
I'm just curious, what happens if I began the month with 0 balance and did not spent anything. Does that also count as a payment?
Yes. You may choose not to apply any charges at all for months on end. It should show postive history up until your lender(s) closes the card for inactivity.
Percentage of payments doesn't help you in 99% of situations. Maybe a manual review.
That being said, there are certain lenders, like cap1, that require a balance to post to statement or they won't count it as a payment. This is especially important when you first get one of their cards as they require you to make 5 on-time payments in order to get the auto-increase or steps increase. If there's no statement balance, they don't count it as a payment.
@Anonymous wrote:
From a scoring perspective it is 35% of score. And payment history is the one thing that has to be perfect to typically have a great score. And its the hardest one to fix, taking 7+ years.
To the question, whether the card sits idle: as long as its open and you're not late, @AllZero is on point, your building positive payment history. The pinnacle of payment history is the total absence of delinquency.. You get no more better score if you use the card than if you don't, as far as scoring goes.
Now, some lenders are not gonna give you CLIs without some spend. But the majority of decisions, absent mortgages and small FI/CU are available instantly via computer, relying heavily on score which is best at AZEO with under a $20 balance showing on one card. High debt is never a good look.
@Anonymous Excellently worded. I shall have to recall the total absence of delinquency verbiage.