hi guys
Background:
I've been more or less gardening for the past year and a bit. For a couple of months I hit 805 FICO on EX (12 inq). But it dropped to sub 800 last month.
I put a decent amount of spend across all my main cards (United Club, SPG, and sometimes Amex Plat), mainly to maximize categories.
I have about a dozen cards, six with Amex (Plat, Green Senior, and four charge cards with $40k of revolving). I have two Chase cards with total of $24k of CL (United Club, Freedom, which was formerly CSP). Barclays Arrival+ 10.5k, BofA+FIA total of $9k.
Goals:
I don't have sights set on which cards to spree in the spring buy one will definitely be the CSP, since it will be 24+ months since my last CSP bonus. And by then all my accounts will be over two years old, so no worries re the 5 new card limit from chase.
Anyway, we had to make a bunch of purchases this month on the Amex Platinum, about $15k. I usually PIF before most of my cards close and I only have one or two cards close with a balance showing. (usually no more than $4k total).
Bulk of my inquiries are falling off this winter and I am looking at my next spree sometime in Feb/March.
Question:
Should I let the $15k of Amex Platinum purchases close and show up on the statement? (my total outstanding has been around $3k-$4.8k per month). The one month that went above $5k the FICO dropped. I have about $110k of available CL, including my AU cards.
The one reason I can think of is the other issuers of mine (Chase, Barclays) seeing that I can spend and pay off this munch. Since usually whenever i PIF an Amex card before the closing my EX report shows $0 activity.
The other reason i can think of to let this statement print is that it will show a higher top balance for the charge card, thereby showing other issues a quasi-limit.
With $15k on the Platinum, your score likely will drop a little bit, but it will recover as soon as the next Platinum statement gets back to your regular spend. So from a FICO scoring standpoint, it won't have any memory whatsoever for your planned Spring apps.
If you are usually in the $5k range on this card, it would seem unlikely to spook other CCC to see $15k one month, and I'd suggest letting it report for two reasons:
1) Yes, it likely increases your AMEX NPSL, however you are already at $15k spent, so this is probably already done.
2) By showing large balances on cards periodically, it softens up your other CCC to see those large amounts, so they are less likely to spook at large numbers.
There was a report late last year of one person who was AU on a Platinum, managed to run up $50k on the NPSL related to wedding expenses, and found some card companies spooked by that, got some CLD on other cards, but $50k is a far cry from $15k, especially since you are always around $5k anyway. Plus which, at 800 range scores, this is probably no issue for you.
As always, no guarantees, but it seems to me you are better off letting the $15k report.
Thanks guys. One thing I just remembered is the 10% rule. I think my total CLs are 118k or so meaning that if i print 15k it will tip the scale above 10% and spook the algos.
So I am thinking maybe I should pay off $5k, let the remaining 10k print. However I also recall reading here that Amex likes single big payments per statement cycle and avg size of payment is a factor in Amex internal scoring, which supports the case for a single $15k print.
@NRB525 I like your idea of "training" the other issuers into seeing larger balances.
@jbsea I had a blip in my platinum statement, pushing me north of 5k because of a bogus charge from a European car rental company. $2-3k in bogus invented damages were since wiped off by Amex (car rental company didn't produce damage reports so Amex did a chargeback). But for the time being the total amount was part of my balance, even though I didn't need to pay it). That was the only change in my profile. And the EX Fico dropped 24 points. Now I've been at 780s for most of the year then was ecstatic when I went above 800, 805 then 810, settling at 805. But the knock down took quite of wind out. Balance has been reduced now to $4k, one of my Inq dropped off but that only bumped me 6 points.
Other than my app spree goal my main goal by feb would be to try and get a retention offer for what will be my 2nd renewal. Last rental got me 15k MR (5k MR + 10k after $2k). Last year I had maybe $15k tops on platinum. This year I'm at $35k and I will reluctantly shift more spend to Amex platinum if that will give me a better chance at a stament credit from retention. (Otherwise it's united club card for my everyday spend )
So I am thinking maybe I should pay off $5k, let the remaining 10k print. However I also recall reading here that Amex likes single big payments per statement cycle and avg size of payment is a factor in Amex internal scoring, which supports the case for a single $15k print.
@NRB525 I like your idea of "training" the other issuers into seeing larger balances.
@jbsea I had a blip in my platinum statement, pushing me north of 5k because of a bogus charge from a European car rental company. $2-3k in bogus invented damages were since wiped off by Amex (car rental company didn't produce damage reports so Amex did a chargeback). But for the time being the total amount was part of my balance, even though I didn't need to pay it). That was the only change in my profile. And the EX Fico dropped 24 points. Now I've been at 780s for most of the year then was ecstatic when I went above 800, 805 then 810, settling at 805. But the knock down took quite of wind out. Balance has been reduced now to $4k, one of my Inq dropped off but that only bumped me 6 points.
Other than my app spree goal my main goal by feb would be to try and get a retention offer for what will be my 2nd renewal. Last rental got me 15k MR (5k MR + 10k after $2k). Last year I had maybe $15k tops on platinum. This year I'm at $35k and I will reluctantly shift more spend to Amex platinum if that will give me a better chance at a stament credit from retention. (Otherwise it's united club card for my everyday spend )
@PointLager wrote:
hi guys
Background:
I've been more or less gardening for the past year and a bit. For a couple of months I hit 805 FICO on EX (12 inq). But it dropped to sub 800 last month.
I put a decent amount of spend across all my main cards (United Club, SPG, and sometimes Amex Plat), mainly to maximize categories.
I have about a dozen cards, six with Amex (Plat, Green Senior, and four charge cards with $40k of revolving). I have two Chase cards with total of $24k of CL (United Club, Freedom, which was formerly CSP). Barclays Arrival+ 10.5k, BofA+FIA total of $9k.
Goals:
I don't have sights set on which cards to spree in the spring buy one will definitely be the CSP, since it will be 24+ months since my last CSP bonus. And by then all my accounts will be over two years old, so no worries re the 5 new card limit from chase.
Anyway, we had to make a bunch of purchases this month on the Amex Platinum, about $15k. I usually PIF before most of my cards close and I only have one or two cards close with a balance showing. (usually no more than $4k total).
Bulk of my inquiries are falling off this winter and I am looking at my next spree sometime in Feb/March.
Question:
Should I let the $15k of Amex Platinum purchases close and show up on the statement? (my total outstanding has been around $3k-$4.8k per month). The one month that went above $5k the FICO dropped. I have about $110k of available CL, including my AU cards.
The one reason I can think of is the other issuers of mine (Chase, Barclays) seeing that I can spend and pay off this munch. Since usually whenever i PIF an Amex card before the closing my EX report shows $0 activity.
The other reason i can think of to let this statement print is that it will show a higher top balance for the charge card, thereby showing other issues a quasi-limit.
Hi PointLager,
There may be many reasons why your FICO dropped. From your background and your questions I'll point out a couple of things that may have caused the drop.
- Out of all your cards you let about 2 cards have a 4K total balance. However for each specific card you should ensure that the balance on each is less than 10% of the total credit limit for that card. From reading your background your cards seems to average around 10K so if one was 10K and you have a 2K balance on it that is cause for your score to drop as that's 20% debt on that specific card.
- There's no reason to let the 15K on the AMEX post, I have seen AMEX dynamically increase the so called "NPSL" when they see spending habits increase and PIF quickly. However leaving the balance may affect your overall usage, YMMV but why risk just PIF before the balance show since you are already letting two other cards show balances.
- Lastly I would take it easy on the sprees and pushing that 5 card limit, it's always better to have a couple long term standing cards with an additional main work horse in the group. Find creditors you really enjoy and if anything do a product change with a card you already have(as that will maintain credit history) if you feel the need to when they come out with a new product you are interested in. Overall average credit history of 8+ years has been shown to conjure the highest credit scores.
