Hello everyone!

I had a question regarding credit limits. I have a modest salary, but only have a 7-month history and a 750 limit on one card. Is it better to keep the utilization ratio low for credit reporting, or should I go for maximum use?

Let me explain.

To be certain, I do spend more than 750/month (paying it off multiple times a month so that the balance is always lower than 750) and I don't carry a month-to-month balance. Before the statement comes in I pay off a chunk to leave single-digit utilization ratio on the report in order to keep my score up. That comes to about $50 a month as reported to the agencies, even though I clearly spend more than that. Now I'm wondering if that may be good for my score, but doesn't show other companies that I spend enough to qualify for better cards later down the line.

Any thoughts from the group? Many thanks!

I think this is more of a creditboards.com question but I'll give it a shot. From what I've read you want less than 10% to report when your statement cuts. Potential creditors will be able to see your high balance, so I would keep up what you're doing.

Keep doing what you are doing. Check your FICO score soon and if it is in the 700s, I would try applying for a couple more cards. They will hopefully have higher credit limits, which should negate having to pay them several times a month.

Also, it will give you a couple of back ups should something happen to one of the cards (declined, etc).

You're on the right track. You want to keep your reported spend to credit agencies under 10%, so the $50 reported to the agencies is where you want to be on a $750 credit card. As your credit rating improves, more options will open up. However, certainly part of what some credit card companies base their credit limits on is your reported income/salary, especially with a new credit history. So that may be a limitation for you in the short run, unless you get a raise or change jobs, etc.

Do NOT max out your card when it reports to the agencies--you'll take a substantial drop in your credit rating.

I thinking I'm doing well salary-wise. I see people reporting on this forum what their limits are vs their salaries, and I can tell that's shouldn't be an issue for me.

My current problem with Capital One is that they are horrible with updating my available credit vs my balance. On top of that, they apparently put "holds" on accounts when multiple payments are made in a billing cycle. They won't up the limit, and make it impossible for me to actually put some spending on the card

Not sure if you mean a different sort of hold, but typically, the merchant sends a request back to the processor saying "Joe wants to buy something worth $54.04, is that ok?" But they don't have the transaction all done, so the processor just says "We have an outstanding charge of about $55 coming." When the charge finally clears, and it could be a day or few, the exact number goes on as a charge, but in the mean time, your credit line (CL) is lessened by $55.

For gasoline, usually the hold is a lot more. You purchase $60 worth of gas, and the hold could be for $100 until the transaction finally clears. For a few days, your credit line is down $100, not $60.

Restaurants can also cause this problem, to the tune of about 20%. If you eat for $50, they'll hold say $60 to cover the amount of the tip you put on the card. Even if you tip cash they'll still hold the higher amount until the transaction finally posts.

These may be the pitfalls you are running into.

You may want to find out if you can access your account online. Doing so would allow you to get a better feel for the rhythm of the cycles.

Note: complaining to the merchant that they are not processing their payments fast enough probably will get you no where.