No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
Suzie Orman was talking about that the other day and stated they CCCs are starting at the bottom in terms of CLDs and interest rates hikes.
She stated they you would be a prime candiate for one if you had a history of just paying the minimum and CCCs know people where using their cards so IMHO I would think they would look for heavy holiday use and slash CL's.
I think that as long as the recent holiday use doesn't raise your overall utilization to a point that would make creditors nervous, you're fine.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
They do still like to have their income from transaction fees, I'm sure, but banks are so strapped for cash now that they greatly prefer PIF'ers, so that they don't have as much loaned money floating around out there.
For anyone who got a little happy with their cards over the holidays, I hope that you can pay way over the minimum on your January statement, and finish PIF'ing it in February.
Remember, right now banks are all about getting cash back onto their books. They're going to prefer customers who can help them in this goal by PIF'ing.
Most of my 16-17 % utilization when Chase just cancelled my acounts was from over the holidays.
Not only do I always do holiday shopping but I book and pay for our Valentines trip. To add insult to injury I used my Freedom card because they were giving out extra bonus points for any travel,cocert,or entertainment purchases until March.
I explained that to them while trying to re-instate the accounts. One of the reasons given for closing the accounts was heavy recent use.
I tried explaining that I was using them more because of the holidays and was going to pay off the balances over the next month, they could look at my CR and see that I don't carry much balance ever and past history shows I PIF or pay down quickly.
They didn't care one bit.
So the answer in my case is a huge 'YES' - they do care and notice holiday balances and take adverse action.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
They do still like to have their income from transaction fees, I'm sure, but banks are so strapped for cash now that they greatly prefer PIF'ers, so that they don't have as much loaned money floating around out there.
For anyone who got a little happy with their cards over the holidays, I hope that you can pay way over the minimum on your January statement, and finish PIF'ing it in February.
Remember, right now banks are all about getting cash back onto their books. They're going to prefer customers who can help them in this goal by PIF'ing.
I'm counting on it.
I wonder if the CCCs that are inclined to do CLDs are more interested in when you revolve another CCC's balance? If so this might be another reason for letting only 1 CC report a balance.
So far I have been immune to CLDs. I dont know if its becuase I am doing everything right or its just not my turn.
LOL Lord knows in the not too distant past I was a prime candidate for it!
I've avoided CLDs too, and have had a couple of recent interest rate drops. I did (briefly) get my total CC balance to $0, which probably looked good, but only if anyone was around for the day or so that was the case to notice it!
It's been suggested to me that some of this is less a matter of utilization than it is of patterns. I routinely put $3500 or so per month on cards (spread across 2 AMEX cards, BofA Visa, Discover MORE, and both Target & Nordstrom Visas). I PIF nearly all of it, but leave enough "floating" so they're earning some interest - but not nearly enough so they worry that I can't cover it. For example, I had a $127 balance on Target - I paid $100 within a week, then $27 after receiving the statement.
The past few weeks I've been purchasing a mountain of books for a relative's grad school needs - well into the $3K range there alone, and we're probably only halfway through the order. It's an odd enough pattern that will double my CC usage for the month, and I'll PIF that from some "liquid savings" in my CU savings account. Thought about just using my debit card, but frankly wanted the CC protection (many of the bookstores are small and overseas), and also wanted to show that I could use the cards at what will easily be 2-3x "normal" - and still stay out of trouble.
Right now, I don't know that I'd do much abnormal use on my CCs unless I could quickly demonstrate that I could pay it off. When I ran up ~10K last summer traveling, my score dropped >80 points in two months (at least TU FAKO, which is all I watched). I took 3 months to pay that off, which was probably a mistake, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me & my kid.
I'm interested to see how people's holiday purchases affect #s and CC behavior now, especially if they're not PIF'd with the statement. My guess is that there'll be rapid CLDs, but we'll see.