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Holiday Balances

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Red1Blue
Super Contributor

Holiday Balances

Now that the Christmas shopping is done and balances start posting to accounts, how is it going to effect the moods of the creditors and credit card companies? I normally do PIF but still some balances might post on to my CR's. Does CCC's start taking adverse actions due to the holiday balances?
Message 1 of 18
17 REPLIES 17
marty56
Super Contributor

Re: Holiday Balances

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.

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX
Message 2 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Holiday Balances

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.

 

 

Message 3 of 18
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Holiday Balances

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.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 4 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Holiday Balances


@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.

How do you think a CCC would see us? We usually carry a fairish smallish balance (roughly 20%) and make huge payments (WAY more than minimum ... like 10-15x the minimum). Will they see us, because we carry a balance, as bad risks?

Even though we pay WAY more than the minimum balance? F'example, on DH's Cap One, on a $1K limit, we usually carry roughly around 20-30%. But since the holiday season is over, we've paid it down to $40. Will they be "happy" with us?

With WaMu, we've got a $2500 limit and have paid it down to slightly less than $600 (that's been our normal pattern). We WILL be making another largish payment after we close on our home on the 20th. Will WaMu see us as a bad risk?

The only reason we've been so lax with WaMu's balance is just because we're 0% interest until 2010.
Message 5 of 18
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Holiday Balances

This is a very legitimate question in this day and age!!!

You know, I think it depends a lot on each bank's cash reserves and degree of uneasiness. If they have enough capital to work with (courtesy of the bailout and all!), then they might well be fine with tidy balances being carried, and being able to get some interest luv out of consumers.

if their backs are against the wall, with their pants pockets turned inside out after looking for spare change, they might rather have the PIF than the interest + promise to pay back one day.

I am the ultimate credit chicken, so right now, the only revolving account I have with a balance is my HELOC. And if USAA wants to acquire another house to add to its inventory, then so be it.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 6 of 18
jaxstraw
Valued Contributor

Re: Holiday Balances

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.

Jax

*************************************************************************************
Then you are a fool. Be thankful that when God gave you a face, he gave you a fool's face
Message 7 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Holiday Balances


@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.

Message 8 of 18
marty56
Super Contributor

Re: Holiday Balances

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!

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX
Message 9 of 18
upperleft
Valued Member

Re: Holiday Balances

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.

 

 

02/09 - TU 787 * EQ - 795 * EX-791
Message 10 of 18
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