Very good advice for FICO scoring. But CreditKarma doesn't round up utilization percentages. So those of us who don't let a balance report of 1%+ of actual reporting credit limits will see utilization of zero. And since it's a FAKO, that's fine.
OP, my CK score never goes about 796. I've tinkered with the score estimator at length when bored, and found the perfect scenario for my max score: The estimator says I can get to a score of 813 with a CLI on one card totaling $407517. If they CLI me $407516, my estimated score would be 812. Damn you CK and your black credit heart!
Aside from that, the estimator says I'm stuck at 796. Ah well. At least my FICO 08 score is 833. CK is just a hater.
Originally Posted by
Jerfer
One thing that you can do to raise your CreditKarma score now is let only one card report a $2 balance. A utilization between 1-4% is most optimal when talking about FICO scoring. Like chrisj500 said, 1% is ideal. But CreditKarma's scoring should be almost identical in this case since utilization is a simple calculation.
Why $2? A $1 balance will be seen as 1% util regardless of the amount of credit you have. If you have $100,000 of available credit and let $1 report, your util will be 1% (not 0.00001%). The reason you should let at least $2 report is credit card companies forgive debt with a balance <= $1.99, meaning you're not obligated to pay it back so it won't report. Discover for example will write it off when a new statement hits. For most it's $0.99. Citi won't even forgive $0.01. It's a variable amount between banks.
Look at the statement dates for all your cards and let a $2 balance report on the card that has a statement anniversary coming soonest. The sooner the better. If a new statement gets posted 3-4 days from now (leaving time for a new transaction to post), you'll be able to get another CreditKarma update next week with the updated util. That's if that particular credit card company updates credit reports on the statement date, but most do.
I bet you'll get a higher FAKO if you get your util to 1%. Grade should become an A.