Pay off cards before new apps?
 

Going to do 3BM chase (IP,IB,UE) and maybe some citi for my wife. While our combined overall utilization is about 5%, one card has about 50% utilization (6k on 12k credit, chase BA, wife is AU; VR, gonna pay off when i cash out mvd today), and have 2K balance on an amex gold card.
Should I wait until the payments clear before I apply so there's no large balances on a card, or are the balances low enought not impact the app?

The current utilization doesn't matter because that's not on the credit report. What was the balance at the last statement? That's what will be seen when you apply.
And if you pay it off, it won't update until the next statement closes.

You can always pull a credit report to be sure, but it sounds like this was a recent purchase and won't be showing as a balance yet.

And yes, a card at 50% util would have an effect.

I believe the number that appears when they pull your report is an avg of your balances.

Nope. The only number that shows up on your report (for each account) is the balance on the day of the month that the account info was sent to the bureaus. For all but a few issuers, that day is the same as your statement closing date. US Bank is a notable exception, which reports the balance on the 1st of the month, regardless of your statement closing.

The best way to maximize your score prior to new applications is to pay off all your cards, except one, in advance of the statement closing date -- that way, they all report zero to the bureaus. For the last card, let a small balance report (say 5-10% of the limit). Doing this will maximize your score when your report is pulled, as it will show everything zero except for the one card.

Note that doing the above is probably not necessary, as unless your regular utilization is high (e.g., >30%), it probably won't improve your score TOO much. However, if you really want to optimize, the above the way to do it.

How is utilization determined on a charge card?

thanks for the correct info and the advice

Last year I ran into an interesting situation:.

I was rejected for a card because
all my cards had a zero balance !

A phone call to a reconsideration line
got the card issued, bonus and all,

... but my careful pruning of
balances almost backfired. :)

I've read numerous reports that say FICO likes a LOW utilization but they like to see something above 0%. :)

Only on one card about 5% the rumor goes......

Because they want to see some utilization! ;)

Keep in mind that Business cards do not show up on credit reports and utilizations.

Some do. I know that Capital One and Barclays business cards show up on your personal report.

I have business cards from Chase, Citi, AmEX, and Barclays.
None of them show up on my personal report, and I applied for all of them using my SSN as a sole prop.

They will report them if the account becomes derogatory.

I recall reading that the US Airways business card showed up on someone's personal report. I don't have any experience myself.

I think I recall reading that as well in the US Airway's CC thread.
I applied anyway for that exact card, and it never showed up on my report.

I love that the business cards don't affect my average account age.

Hard to tell here: are you carrying balances on your cards? If so, you're not ready for this game.

Also-there is no 3BM, or even 2BM, for Chase. There are simply multiple applications on the same day. No magic for using multiple browsers. Citi was special.

Nope. Citi is/was not special at all. What do you think makes Citi special?

I've read in several sources that your aggregate credit limit on all cards divided by your aggregate credit card balances determines your credit utilization ratio. If so, it wouldn't matter if you utilize 90 percent of the credit on one card and none on nine others or if you utilize 9 percent of the credit available to you on 10 different cards -- your utilization ratio would be the same either way. Is this not true?

That may be true as far as your FICO score alone is concerned, but your score is not the only thing that lenders look at. Different lenders may look at many different factors, and I'm fairly confident that having a nearly maxed out card looks riskier than having several lightly-utilized cards, even if the total utilization is the same.

I have always been worried about paying off accounts prior to a round of applications, but it hasn't seemed to matter.

This is with a ~780 score, $120k total credit, with about $9-10k of balances (most of it on one card, a 0% offer with 80% utilization). I have a 13 year credit history.

I was approved for 5 cards last week (Amex biz platinum, ink bold, US air, AA platinum, United explorer) and 2 cards in January (Amex platinum, sapphire preferred). All were instant except for Chase, which had me reallocate some credit and approved.