cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Advantage of a High Balance Month?

tag
afinch1992
Regular Contributor

Advantage of a High Balance Month?

I recieved my CSP this week and have a question about reporting a high balance for one month. I am in a unique position to have a larger balance report on a single card now and wonder if it might be useful for obtaining higher limits in the future to have a large balance report. Obviously this will drop my score like a rock, but from my understanding, my score will return when the utilization is low again (I usually have 1% report). I will PIF as soon as it reports, so that is not an issue. I know that when I applied for the Sallie Mae a few months back, the reason my credit limit was set at $1400 was because my highest ever balance was $13xx on another card (direct words from the analyst).

 

Thoughts from the credit masters?

 

Edit: just some more data, My first due date is nearly 2 months away and I already have 2.5k in spending that will go on the card in the couple of weeks. If I were to max it out at 5k, it would put me at about 20% total utilization, so not really that terrible for the overall. 

AMEX BCE 18000CL, Citi DC 15000CL, AMEX EDP 15000CL, CSP 5000CL, Fidelity AMEX 5000CL, Sallie Mae MC 7400CL, US Bank Cash+ 5000CL, Chase Freedom 4000CL, Capital One QS 6000CL, BoA Better Balance 2500CL, Discover It 2000CL, BoA Better Cash Rewards 500CL, Chase Amazon CC 700CL

TU: 756 EX: 755 EQ: 753
Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
Trivolve
Contributor

Re: Advantage of a High Balance Month?

I believe when banks give CLIs they have access to, and take into account, how high a balance you have reached and whether you managed to pay it back down. So the actual high balance on the credit report might not matter to the individual bank that you have that balance on. However, that said, your credit report does list the highest balance ever reached on that particular card, so credit analysts can see that but my guess is that it's not as important as other factors.

[Total CL: $97K] Citi Forward, BoA BankAmericard Travel Rewards, Discover It, Chase Freedom, Chase Hyatt, AMEX Blue Cash, AMEX Hilton Hhonors, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Thankyou Preferred, Barclaycard Arrival Plus, AMEX Platinum, Chase IHG
Message 2 of 5
eagle2013
Established Contributor

Re: Advantage of a High Balance Month?


@Trivolve wrote:

I believe when banks give CLIs they have access to, and take into account, how high a balance you have reached and whether you managed to pay it back down. So the actual high balance on the credit report might not matter to the individual bank that you have that balance on. However, that said, your credit report does list the highest balance ever reached on that particular card, so credit analysts can see that but my guess is that it's not as important as other factors.


+1 Well said.

Message 3 of 5
takeshi74
Senior Contributor

Re: Advantage of a High Balance Month?


@afinch1992 wrote:

I am in a unique position to have a larger balance report on a single card now and wonder if it might be useful for obtaining higher limits in the future to have a large balance report.


It could for specific creditors but your call whether it's worth it based on what a Sallie Mae analyst mentioned.  And, as indicated above, Chase doesn't have to look at your reports to see your usage with accounts that you hold with them.

Message 4 of 5
afinch1992
Regular Contributor

Re: Advantage of a High Balance Month?

thanks for the replies everyone. I probably have enough credit to cover anything at this point, but I was not sure if other creditors acted like barclays did. I know that another analyst mentioned the high balance before (FIA maybe?), but they went back to limits on other cards pretty quickly. I'll just see how everything ends up around the due date and probably just pay it off then

AMEX BCE 18000CL, Citi DC 15000CL, AMEX EDP 15000CL, CSP 5000CL, Fidelity AMEX 5000CL, Sallie Mae MC 7400CL, US Bank Cash+ 5000CL, Chase Freedom 4000CL, Capital One QS 6000CL, BoA Better Balance 2500CL, Discover It 2000CL, BoA Better Cash Rewards 500CL, Chase Amazon CC 700CL

TU: 756 EX: 755 EQ: 753
Message 5 of 5
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.