- How It Works|
- FAQs|
- Help
- Log In to your account |
- Sign up now for free!
Credit Advice
Have a question? Have advice to share? The combined knowledge and experience of everyone in the Credit Karma community can help you. Enter your question or help others below to get started!
Question
Why is my CC Utilization of 0% getting a "C" grade?
I use my 2 cards regularly and often. In fact, I use my two cards with a combined limit of only $2500 as much as $800-1400 per monthly cycle. However, knowing my statement date, I pay them off so my statement shows a zero balance. I was always led to believe that using your cards and paying them to zero is not perceived the same by the credit bureaus as not using them at all. IOW, I have always been under the impression that the information reported by my CC companies reflects my activity in some way as well as my statement balance.
The third card on my credit report (which happens to currently show a balance of $53) is my wife's, for which I was made an authorized user (10 year old account with a $9700 limit) to boost my credit limit and account age.
Are zero balances being taken as zero activity on my credit report?
Asked by
ztnjpv
3 months ago
Flag this Question
1 response
- Prev
- 1
Reply To This Question
The Credit Advice pages of the Site may contain messages submitted by users over whom Credit Karma has no control. Credit Karma cannot guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of any such messages. Some users may post messages that are misleading, untrue or offensive. You must bear all risk associated with your use of the Credit Advice pages and should not rely on messages in making (or refraining from making) any specific financial or other decisions.
Let the community lend a hand!
3 Most Recent Questions in Credit Scores
Featured Credit Repair Service
- Take action and start work to improve your credit, today!
- Lexington Law helps you work toward the removal of questionable, negative items on your credit reports.
- They have served over 600,000 clients since 1991
- Active Concord-level clients see, on average, 8.7 removals by month 3 and 28.6 by month 12*
*Your Results May Vary
SERVICE PROVIDED BY
Lexington Law Credit Report Repair
Over 1 million negative items removed by Lexington Law last year, including:
- Collections
- Late Payments
- Bankruptcies
- Foreclosures
Copyright© 2007-2012 Credit Karma™, Inc. Credit Karma is a registered trademark of Credit Karma, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Product name, logo, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within Credit Karma are the property of their respective trademark holders. This site may be compensated through third party advertisers.
Credit bureaus only know what is reported to them. Credit card companies typically report updates once per month. Some post data mid-cycle, some post data only on the statement close date. My assumption is that your CC companies are posting data at the end of each month. Therefore, to the credit bureaus, it looks like you're not using your card at all. If you want to be proactive about it, pay off your cards down to 1-10% utilization before the reporting date. Call your credit card company to find out your reporting date; just tell them that your credit reports show no utilization, and you would like it to show some. I don't see why they would have a problem giving you the information. I feel your pain, though. I have a combined $33k limit on all my credit cards, got into the habit of paying off my card every weekend. I've started to force myself to not pay every weekend, but rather to check every weekend, just to double check that I don't miss a payment ever. My report shows a "C" grade currently as well, which is a little frustrating, and I need to try to "game" the reporting dates a bit in the near future as I'm buying a house soon. Best of luck with all this :D
MonocleCollector 3 months ago