Why you might not want to zero out every credit card

Most of the time, using as little of your credit card limits as possible is better for your score. And yet using 1% of your available credit is slightly better than using 0%. That’s because credit scoring is all about estimating risk, and data shows 1% usage indicates less risk than no usage. You can pay off credit cards before the card issuers report your balances to the credit bureaus, or follow the “all zeros except one” approach. Or, you could monitor your credit usage week