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Nobody has to pay interest in order to show usage. CC companies usually report to the credit bureaus once a month. Most do so when the statement cuts/closes. Between that time and the due date is your grace period. Pay the statement balance in full anytime between statement cut and due date and you will both show usage AND pay no interest.
Warning to everyone...keep a balance of 30% of total available credit with credit cards.
Pay a little more than the minimum due every month.
Do NOT pay them off.
Paying $1 or $1000 doesn't matter... balances matter. I've tested the theory many times over... I let multiple cards report a balance from $1 up to $100... and when I let them report $0 my score went up.
For your optimal FICO score you want all credit cards reporting a $0 balance except for ONE... have it reporting a 1%-9% balance.
So yeah, if you paid ALL your cards to $0 I can totally see why your score dropped.
Another thing... FICO has no memory. If you let a $5000 card report a $4800 balance your score will drop due to the high utilization... if you paid off that balance next month your score will rebound.
I quit caring about my score a long time ago. It was once a few points away from the highest (900 with one of the agencies). Then I quit having so many bills from the result of going "off-grid" and having everything paid for, once that happened I quit borrowing. Now I only have one personal credit card with a 300 limit, which I could easily raise if I wanted to but I don't.
Screw credit! You're screwed any which way you manage the debt.
never paid a penny in interest on credit cards. have zero debt . have not had a mortgage in 14 years .
we charge about 2000-2500 a month and put all the bills we can on the credit cards and pay it off in full. most of the time we make a payment right after charging it so we rarely have a balance carried even through to the end of the month. we usually have multiple payments made through the month , i am anal like that and don't even like seeing i owe money..
get 2% back invested in our fidelity account. it is better than i can get short term on the money.
our fico scores are in the 830 range.
Last edited by mathjak107; 12-20-2014 at 04:25 AM..
My cc balance is 0.
I only have 1 credit card,and i only have a car lease i am paying on. No student loan,no mortgage.
I really though paying off the bill would raise my score.
You would think right?
Nope. My score went from 745 to 702.
Who cares? If you not planning on purchasing a house, car or some other big ticket item where a good credit score will affect your interest rate, then your current FICO score is irrelevant.
Who cares? If you not planning on purchasing a house, car or some other big ticket item where a good credit score will affect your interest rate, then your current FICO score is irrelevant.
Your score plays into other things, like insurance and employment.
Who cares? If you not planning on purchasing a house, car or some other big ticket item where a good credit score will affect your interest rate, then your current FICO score is irrelevant.
Exactly!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Chick
Your score plays into other things, like insurance and employment.
The only situation when the score would matter for either is when you have really bad credit.
insurance is a big area scores count as you have an insurance score that is made up of your credit score ,driving record and location, age and marital status.
the higher the insurance score the lower the rate. even sliding from top credit score to middle of the road can effect your rates.
rening an apartment in a metroploitan area usually requires a check and good score . we require in the 700's for an apartment. if we have to decide between multiple applicants highest score will usually be the tie breaker.
Last edited by mathjak107; 12-20-2014 at 09:18 AM..
insurance is a big area scores count as you have an insurance score that is made up of your credit score ,driving record and location, age and marital status.
the higher the insurance score the lower the rate. even sliding from top credit score to middle of the road can effect your rates.
rening an apartment in a metroploitan area usually requires a check and good score . we require in the 700's for an apartment. if we have to decide between multiple applicants highest score will usually be the tie breaker.
What scoring model do you use? FICO 98? FICO 04? FICO 08? Transrisk? Vantage? Something else?
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