finessing the score -- is zero balance or nominal balance better ??

[expatCanuck]

Greetings -

I have three cards, with $5K, $6K and $10k limits and a decade of clean payment history.

From a FICO scoring perspective, assuming that I'm regularly paying in full on a monthly basis,

does it much matter whether one, two or all three of the cards have zero balances or nominal

(under 5% utilization) balances?

And from a practical keeping-the-issuer happy perspective, might it be best to rotate card use

(i.e. - January use Amex, February use Visa, March use MC ...) and, if so, would that adversely

impact the FICO score?

Thanks.

Message Edited by expatCanuck on 01-26-2010 10:25 AM

[Jazzzy]

From a FICO perspective, it would likely be best to have only one of your cards show a small balance and to have zero balances on the other two cards.

I don't rotate the use on my cards. I use the card where I will get the highest reward for the category (gas, groceries, airline, etc.). I use my nonreward cards by having one small monthly charge (Netflix, book club, etc.) post to them, and then I pay them off right away.