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High Balance Question

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Anonymous
Not applicable

High Balance Question

I juat got my Amazon Prime Rewards Visa CL $3000

 

I want to charge everything to it as if I was using it as my debit card, then pay it off before interest and reporting. (Cash Back Rewards)

This way It'll always show $0/3000 on my CR, but it will say High Balance $2875 or whatever. Is that bad?

 

I WILL keep it at $0 balance when they report, but how does the high balance effect my score?

 

Thanks,

 

Brew

Message 1 of 14
13 REPLIES 13
dragontears
Senior Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

Short answer: the "high balance" doesn't effect your score at all.
The nice thing about chase cards is even if you let a balance report as soon as you pay the card to 0 chase will immediately report to the CRA
Message 2 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: High Balance Question

thats awesome! Thank you

Message 3 of 14
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

If the high balance bothers you, just make more frequent payments. Or make the payments anyway simply because doing that gives you more room for more charges.

Message 4 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: High Balance Question

I just have to find out when they report so I make sure its at $0

 

Is it based on statement date or always the same for all of their accounts?

Message 5 of 14
RadioRob
Established Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

I’ve seen some lenders report whatever the highest balance was regardless of statement date. But again it does not matter for scoring. FICO does not care if you pay daily/weekly/monthly as long as you have at least the minimum paid within 30 days of the due date.
Message 6 of 14
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

Chase reports the statement balance on the statement date. And they report zero whenever you pay to zero. To ice the cake, if you let a positive balance appear on your statement and pay to zero the next business day (or maybe within two business days), they'll skip reporting the statement balance and go straight to reporting zero.

 

Actually, although it's doable, it's harder to get Chase to continuiously report a balance that isn't zero. Smiley Happy

Message 7 of 14
RadioRob
Established Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

And remember there is a difference from the high balance and the last statement balance. Smiley Happy

High balance is amount that was the highest ever used on the card and the regular balance field is the last amount due when the statement cut. High balance will never go down.
Message 8 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: High Balance Question


@RadioRob wrote:
And remember there is a difference from the high balance and the last statement balance. Smiley Happy

High balance is amount that was the highest ever used on the card and the regular balance field is the last amount due when the statement cut. High balance will never go down.
That is true with some issuers but not all, Amex and Discover for example simply fill in that space with the highest statement balance, not highest overall balance, I'm sure they're not alone.
Message 9 of 14
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: High Balance Question

I believe that Capital One and Chase report the highest current balances, i.e. whether they're a statement balance or a mid-cycle balance. Note that that's hearsay. I'm not able to discern that from my own cards, but I believe I've heard that here.

 

AMEX and Barclays definitely report the highest statement balance rather than a mid-cycle balance that might be higher.

 

That said, there are reasons beyond high usage that might cause the highest balance to be high relative to one's limit. For instance, maybe a credit limit has been transferred from one card to another. In a case like that, one's highest balance can be well over one's current limit.

Message 10 of 14
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