Originally Posted by chemist661

Even better: Pay monthly charges (or as much as possible) before statement "cuts".

I used to do that for a couple months before applying for a mortgage. Example: 2 cards with 10K CL. One charges 5K on each card. If bills are paid when it is due, the lender will figure 3% of $10K ($300) for monthly obligations even though one never carries a balance. If bills are paid before statement "cuts", the balances shown by the credit reports are zero (or close to zero) and no (little) monthly obligation is assumed for qualifying purposes.

Also, the credit scores would be higher because the credit bureaus would assume almost 0% utilization if balances are paid before statement "cuts" rather than 50% utilization on the two cards in the above example. 50% utilization is worse than 0% or low utilization.

Note: Some card companies may only allow to pay balance on the account and in that case, there may be a small balance due to pending charges not yet posted. In that case, one may need to pay twice (before statement "cuts" and also before due date).