Credit Cards

[tinuviel]

Two days ago I was approved for a Bank Americard. Even though I don't physically have the card, it's shown up on my EX report today. It's listing it as a "Flexible Spending" account and is not showing the CL. Does this mean that I got approved for the Signature version? If so, how will any reported balances affect my util and scores?

[Open123]

Not sure about BofA, but some Visa signatures report like Amex charge cards with your highest balance set as the reporting limit.  

So, if you charge $750 this month, that's your the amount used for utility purposes.  Next month, you charge $3,800, then that becomes the new limit used for utility.  You might want to ask BofA how they report Visa sig cards.

[YahComb]

you were approved for 5000. Usually if they start you at that amount or higher they issue a Visa Signature(or world mastercard). Most of the banks do show the credit limits for those, but BOA is still holding out for whatever reason.

[tinuviel]

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Open123 wrote:

Not sure about BofA, but some Visa signatures report like Amex charge cards with your highest balance set as the reporting limit.  

So, if you charge $750 this month, that's your the amount used for utility purposes.  Next month, you charge $3,800, then that becomes the new limit used for utility.  You might want to ask BofA how they report Visa sig cards.

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That's what I thought. I'm not accustomed to letting a balance report; I wish that they would just report the limit of the card. Well, I'll see how my use of the card affects my util and scores and then see if I need to adjust how I allow balances to report. This will be interesting.

[tinuviel]

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YahComb wrote:

you were approved for 5000. Usually if they start you at that amount or higher they issue a Visa Signature(or world mastercard). Most of the banks do show the credit limits for those, but BOA is still holding out for whatever reason.

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Thank you, that's what I thought. Wow! I knew my credit had improved and was happy to be approved for the card at all, but I hadn't realized that it had improved enough to get the Signature version of the card.

[Open123]

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tinuviel wrote:

That's what I thought. I'm not accustomed to letting a balance report; I wish that they would just report the limit of the card. Well, I'll see how my use of the card affects my util and scores and then see if I need to adjust how I allow balances to report. This will be interesting.

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The overall utility isn't going to be bad since your aggregate limits pretty high.  

However, for the first few months until you will have high utility, but just on the BofA card.  In time, it isn't bad once you've established a high limit.  Also, with the Visa Signatures, the limit is technically not the limit, since you're always free to exceed it at BofA's discretion.

[tinuviel]

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Open123 wrote:

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tinuviel wrote:

That's what I thought. I'm not accustomed to letting a balance report; I wish that they would just report the limit of the card. Well, I'll see how my use of the card affects my util and scores and then see if I need to adjust how I allow balances to report. This will be interesting.

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The overall utility isn't going to be bad since your aggregate limits pretty high.  

However, for the first few months until you will have high utility, but just on the BofA card.  In time, it isn't bad once you've established a high limit.  Also, with the Visa Signatures, the limit is technically not the limit, since you're always free to exceed it at BofA's discretion.

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Yes, but I've become accustomed to PIF before the statement cuts and reporting zero util. I suppose that I should put a lot of spending on the card one month, allow the balance to report and then PIF immediately after. I wish that they would show the CL, though, because I don't expect to run up a $5000 balance on the card in a single month -- ie: I don't intend to max out the card, and my monthly spending habits wouldn't normally have me putting that much on any one card. So, it doesn't look like I'd ever expect to put enough util on the card to show that I have $5000 worth of spending power on it.

But, I suppose that on manual review, a lender would see that it's a Flexible Spending account and realize that it has at least a $5000 CL. Yes? This is all new to me.

BTW, I just checked, and it's reporting on EQ, as well. Still not showing up on TU, but I imagine it will soon.

[Open123]

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tinuviel wrote:

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Open123 wrote:

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tinuviel wrote:

That's what I thought. I'm not accustomed to letting a balance report; I wish that they would just report the limit of the card. Well, I'll see how my use of the card affects my util and scores and then see if I need to adjust how I allow balances to report. This will be interesting.

---

The overall utility isn't going to be bad since your aggregate limits pretty high.  

However, for the first few months until you will have high utility, but just on the BofA card.  In time, it isn't bad once you've established a high limit.  Also, with the Visa Signatures, the limit is technically not the limit, since you're always free to exceed it at BofA's discretion.

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Yes, but I've become accustomed to PIF before the statement cuts and reporting zero util. I suppose that I should put a lot of spending on the card one month, allow the balance to report and then PIF immediately after. I wish that they would show the CL, though, because I don't expect to run up a $5000 balance on the card in a single month -- ie: I don't intend to max out the card, and my monthly spending habits wouldn't normally have me putting that much on any one card. So, it doesn't look like I'd ever expect to put enough util on the card to show that I have $5000 worth of spending power on it.

But, I suppose that on manual review, a lender would see that it's a Flexible Spending account and realize that it has at least a $5000 CL. Yes? This is all new to me.

BTW, I just checked, and it's reporting on EQ, as well. Still not showing up on TU, but I imagine it will soon.

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What you can do is just take a single month, and use it for all of your spending and bills.  Let the balance report, then just pay in full.  The highest balance becomes your new amount for utility purposes.

After that, you can just pay before the balance reports to continue reporting a 0 utility.

[Crashem]

Tinuviel,

When you activate the card, it will tell you your limit online.  BofA is freaking slow with updating their code and still is not reporting limits to CRAs like most others for VISA Sig cards.  As such, previous poster was right, FICO will treat it like how FICO98 treats AMEX charge card.  The high balance is the limit and card will count towards utilization.  I am unclear however what BofA reports as high balance, whether it is high statement balance or high balance at any point in time.  Would love an answer to this.

If I was you, I would experiment.  First month, charge a bunch but pay before statement generates.  See what BofA reports.  Hopefully it will report your highest balance at any point in the month as your high balance.  If it doesn't, it will mean you will need to take a one month credit score hit.  I would then charge everything I could on the card for a month and let statement balance report to get high balance as high as possible.  Of course, your FICO will take a hit that next month so don't plan on applying for anything then.  Afterwards, you can go back to your usual behavior.

[tinuviel]

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Crashem wrote:

Tinuviel,

When you activate the card, it will tell you your limit online.  BofA is freaking slow with updating their code and still is not reporting limits to CRAs like most others for VISA Sig cards.  As such, previous poster was right, FICO will treat it like how FICO98 treats AMEX charge card.  The high balance is the limit and card will count towards utilization.  I am unclear however what BofA reports as high balance, whether it is high statement balance or high balance at any point in time.  Would love an answer to this.

If I was you, I would experiment.  First month, charge a bunch but pay before statement generates.  See what BofA reports.  Hopefully it will report your highest balance at any point in the month as your high balance.  If it doesn't, it will mean you will need to take a one month credit score hit.  I would then charge everything I could on the card for a month and let statement balance report to get high balance as high as possible.  Of course, your FICO will take a hit that next month so don't plan on applying for anything then.  Afterwards, you can go back to your usual behavior.

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I already know the limit, as they gave it to me both on the approval screen and the subsequent confirmation email -- it's $5000.

Thanks for the advice. I'll go ahead and play with the amount I charge and how I allow it to report. I'm not especially worried about score hits at the moment, as I'm officially back in garden mode. It was an amazingly successful app spree, and I'm done.