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High balance affect score?

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Michael982
Contributor

High balance affect score?

Does your high balance on your credit report affect you in any way. I have several cards and they all show low balances. Like my amex has a 16k limit but the highest balance is $99. I put maybe 4k through this card a month, I just end up paying it off bi-weekly so it never posts. Should I let some of the high balances post to make the history look better?

Freedom$6,000 CSP$11,000 IT$4,000 BCE$16,200 SallieMae$5,000 NFCU$14,000 Macys$1,000 United$5,000

Message 1 of 13
12 REPLIES 12
Burned2manybridgesB4
Valued Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?


@Michael982 wrote:

Does your high balance on your credit report affect you in any way. I have several cards and they all show low balances. Like my amex has a 16k limit but the highest balance is $99. I put maybe 4k through this card a month, I just end up paying it off bi-weekly so it never posts. Should I let some of the high balances post to make the history look better?


Helps if you want all your creditors to see it, and that one specific TL doesn't report your monthly payments at a zero bal report.

Message 2 of 13
Chris679
Established Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?

Has no affect. I'm sure someone will pipe in and say that there is a tiny remote chance that under manual review a CA might interpret it one way or another but don't worry about it.
Message 3 of 13
Burned2manybridgesB4
Valued Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?

Here's an example of what I'm referring to.

 

Jun 2014: $3 / no data / Unknown / no data
May 2014: $16 / no data / Unknown / no data
Apr 2014: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Mar 2014: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Feb 2014: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Jan 2014: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Dec 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Nov 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Oct 2013: $25 / no data / Unknown / no data
Sep 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Aug 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Jul 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
Jun 2013: $0 / no data / Unknown / no data
May 2013: $103 / no data / Unknown / no data
Apr 2013: $55 / no data / Unknown / no data
Mar 2013: $58 / no data / Unknown / no data
Feb 2013: $75 / no data / Unknown / no data
Jan 2013: $138 / no data / Unknown / no data
Dec 2012: $100 / no data / Unknown / no data
Nov 2012: $29 / no data / Unknown / no data
Oct 2012: $402 / no data / Unknown / no data

Message 4 of 13
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?

What are the three columns to the right?

 

There are two ways you will generally see your CR of history:

1) What you see there: You are PIF each month, and there is zero balance rolling forward. THEREFORE, you have NO "Agreed Minimum Payment" which would be one of the columns. Another column would be the actual amount you paid that month. The amount you paid must be more than the "Agreed Minimum Payment" column otherwise you short paid. The third column (No Data here) would be the count whether you paid late or not.

 

2) You DO carry a balance or carry over a balance from one month to a few following. In that case, you will have a "Agreed Minimum Payment" for the month, based on the Ts&Cs agreement, the "Actual Payment" amount, and a flag/score for whether you paid on time or were late 30, 60, 90 (god forbid).

 

The account should still register as "Paid as agreed" but the individual payments aren't able to calculate anything.

 

Are those the column headers / description of the three columns?

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 5 of 13
Burned2manybridgesB4
Valued Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?

account balance / date payment received / scheduled payment amount / actual amount paid

 

In my listed example for the OP, I was showing them the notion of letting a balance report, not carry. The other OC's can then see usage, and high limit, but whereas the problem can arise with listings like my example...

 

Message 6 of 13
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?


@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

account balance / date payment received / scheduled payment amount / actual amount paid

 

In my listed example for the OP, I was showing them the notion of letting a balance report, not carry. The other OC's can then see usage, and high limit, but whereas the problem can arise with listings like my example...

 


Agreed, the CCC reporting the lack of amounts should just show zeros, I guess it depends on the format of the CR.

To reiterate, in the "no data" situation, the card still reports as OK.

 

If there was a late in there, you can bet it would show "data" Smiley Happy

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 7 of 13
Burned2manybridgesB4
Valued Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?


@NRB525 wrote:

@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

account balance / date payment received / scheduled payment amount / actual amount paid

 

In my listed example for the OP, I was showing them the notion of letting a balance report, not carry. The other OC's can then see usage, and high limit, but whereas the problem can arise with listings like my example...

 


Agreed, the CCC reporting the lack of amounts should just show zeros, I guess it depends on the format of the CR.

To reiterate, in the "no data" situation, the card still reports as OK.

 

If there was a late in there, you can bet it would show "data" Smiley Happy


Right, but underwriters look for more than a little green OK.

Message 8 of 13
Chris679
Established Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?


@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

@NRB525 wrote:

@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

account balance / date payment received / scheduled payment amount / actual amount paid

 

In my listed example for the OP, I was showing them the notion of letting a balance report, not carry. The other OC's can then see usage, and high limit, but whereas the problem can arise with listings like my example...

 


Agreed, the CCC reporting the lack of amounts should just show zeros, I guess it depends on the format of the CR.

To reiterate, in the "no data" situation, the card still reports as OK.

 

If there was a late in there, you can bet it would show "data" Smiley Happy


Right, but underwriters look for more than a little green OK.


What information is this statement based on?  Isn't it more logical to think that a creditor is simply concerned with your current obligation/ balance and your past payment history?  I would think that if this payment history was important to underwriters then FICO would start including it in scoring models to better serve their customers.  My advice is to worry about what affects your FICO score and not to waste time worrying about things that don't because I highly doubt anyone else is either.

Message 9 of 13
takeshi74
Senior Contributor

Re: High balance affect score?


@Chris679 wrote:

Isn't it more logical to think that a creditor is simply concerned with your current obligation/ balance and your past payment history?  I would think that if this payment history was important to underwriters then FICO would start including it in scoring models to better serve their customers.


I don't think it's logical to assume that all creditors have identical criteria.  It's never just about score and that's why reports are pulled in addition to scores.

Message 10 of 13
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