CC reporting high balance ??

[bichonmom]

I thought this was interesting and am wondering if other CCs do this, too. Basically, I got NFCU CC in Nov. 1st stmt. cut a week later w/50 bal, which I paid before due date. Then in Dec., I charged $1300 on $2000 CL. I paid BEFORE Dec stmt cut, so it had zero bal. My CR shows $0 bal AND $1300 high bal. I doubt it affects my score, but I thought that since I paid it BEFORE the stmt cut, the high bal on CR would have remained at $50 (from previous month), since that was the highest ending/stmt balance that the card had. Has anyone else noticed this? Does is have an impact on FICO one way or another?

[bichonmom]

Has anyone noticed the CCs reporting High Bal, even when you're paying BEFORE the stmt cuts? I wonder if this is just info sent to the CRAs automatically. Does it have any impact on our credit score?

Thanks!

[john398]

Nothing I have read says where a high balance affects your score however I guess on manual review it could affect a decission but not sure

[pizzadude]

The high balance isn't factored into your %util calculations, it is just there for historical tracking purposes.

[Revelate]

It's extra data, and if it's shown to us as consumers, it's almost assuredly a factor somewhere as we don't get shown everything that's reported to CRAs.

It was standard practice for credit-building back in the day to run your card up to the max limit just in case they didn't report the total limit anyway; however, let's look at it from a lender's perspective: lenders want to make money, and any that tell you differently is baldly lying, and that includes non-profit CUs.

So lenders, what do they look for in terms of making money off a customer?  Demonstrated use, and responsible use of a credit line.  In this case, at some point in the past, you had a high-water mark of X (and this is normal to report btw), and now it's lower by some factor, say near zero... someone granted you credit, you used it, and you paid it back, ergo, you used it responsibly.  The lender in question probably (but not always) made money from you besides the AF if any.

Further bonus, if you've demonstrated that you "needed" a credit limit of that previously and were able to pay it back without trouble (no delinquencies) then quite possibly you could "use" more credit, and probably still pay it back.  New card, or higher limits, both may factor this sort of information into whether you're approved or not.  I certainly would if I were building an algorithm to predict risk / profit like the lenders do: it's reasonable to assume there's brighter people than I am using this information somehow for this very purpose as well.