Will Macy's/DSNB stop balance chasing me?

[designated_knitter]

So last month they lowered my CL to just over my balance.  Made a payment and they lowered my CL by the same amount.  Pretty clear they are balance chasing.  I had a 5400 CL... I'm down to 5100.  

So are they going to keep balance chasing me back down to 100 bucks (where I was a year ago) or will it level off if I get my credit profile under control?

As a little bit of background, I moved in the fall and as a result, my credit cards are maxed out.  I should be getting a sizable bonus in a couple of weeks (several thousand dollars) and plan to get all my credit cards down to reasonable utilization levels... Hopefully resulting in a significant jump in my FICO scores (which are in the 570-600 range).  I have been keeping baddies to a minimum (1 30-day past due on an unrelated account a couple of months ago -- no new collections -- oldest collection is from 2010).  Not planning on looking for any additional credit or tradelines so no new inquiries...

So have I screwed the pooch in terms of Macy's and need to just basically write them off?  Or once my balances/finances stableize, will they ease off on me?

Anyone with experience and/or crystal ball would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[UncleB]

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@designated_knitter wrote:

So last month they lowered my CL to just over my balance.  Made a payment and they lowered my CL by the same amount.  Pretty clear they are balance chasing.  I had a 5400 CL... I'm down to 5100.  

So are they going to keep balance chasing me back down to 100 bucks (where I was a year ago) or will it level off if I get my credit profile under control?

As a little bit of background, I moved in the fall and as a result, my credit cards are maxed out.  I should be getting a sizable bonus in a couple of weeks (several thousand dollars) and plan to get all my credit cards down to reasonable utilization levels... Hopefully resulting in a significant jump in my FICO scores (which are in the 570-600 range).  I have been keeping baddies to a minimum (1 30-day past due on an unrelated account a couple of months ago -- no new collections -- oldest collection is from 2010).  Not planning on looking for any additional credit or tradelines so no new inquiries...

So have I screwed the pooch in terms of Macy's and need to just basically write them off?  Or once my balances/finances stableize, will they ease off on me?

Anyone with experience and/or crystal ball would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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I had this happen with Lowe's/Synchrony years ago.  I had perfect payment history with them but I was having problems with other lenders, and they balance chased me until my credit line was less than $500 (it stopped at $473).

I suspect it's not your utilization that started the balance chasing, but the 30-day late that got their attention.  Of course adding in increased utilization brought your score down even further, and what they are now doing won't make it any better.  The worst part is (and it was with me as well) that while you're being balance chased, your utilization will never improve no matter how much you pay, since they simply lower your available credit to match. 

No 'crystal ball' here, but you pretty much just have to ride it out... when your credit line gets to a point where they are comfortable with their exposure, the chasing will stop.  In my own case I SD'd the card after the CL was reduced, and years later I was able to slowly get it raised back up... it's currently at $10k.

Good luck! 

[Discover2016]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@designated_knitter wrote:

So last month they lowered my CL to just over my balance.  Made a payment and they lowered my CL by the same amount.  Pretty clear they are balance chasing.  I had a 5400 CL... I'm down to 5100.  

So are they going to keep balance chasing me back down to 100 bucks (where I was a year ago) or will it level off if I get my credit profile under control?

As a little bit of background, I moved in the fall and as a result, my credit cards are maxed out.  I should be getting a sizable bonus in a couple of weeks (several thousand dollars) and plan to get all my credit cards down to reasonable utilization levels... Hopefully resulting in a significant jump in my FICO scores (which are in the 570-600 range).  I have been keeping baddies to a minimum (1 30-day past due on an unrelated account a couple of months ago -- no new collections -- oldest collection is from 2010).  Not planning on looking for any additional credit or tradelines so no new inquiries...

So have I screwed the pooch in terms of Macy's and need to just basically write them off?  Or once my balances/finances stableize, will they ease off on me?

Anyone with experience and/or crystal ball would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

---

I had this happen with Lowe's/Synchrony years ago.  I had perfect payment history with them but I was having problems with other lenders, and they balance chased me until my credit line was less than $500 (it stopped at $473).

I suspect it's not your utilization that started the balance chasing, but the 30-day late that got their attention.  Of course adding in increased utilization brought your score down even further, and what they are now doing won't make it any better.  The worst part is (and it was with me as well) that while you're being balance chased, your utilization will never improve no matter how much you pay, since they simply lower your available credit to match. 

No 'crystal ball' here, but you pretty much just have to ride it out... when your credit line gets to a point where they are comfortable with their exposure, the chasing will stop.  In my own case I SD'd the card after the CL was reduced, and years later I was able to slowly get it raised back up... it's currently at $10k.

Good luck! 

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1+++ That 30 day late was like a red flare that got their attention. Pretty much the only thing you can do is just pay it down and wait until your score recovers.

[FinStar]

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@designated_knitter wrote:

So last month they lowered my CL to just over my balance.  Made a payment and they lowered my CL by the same amount.  Pretty clear they are balance chasing.  I had a 5400 CL... I'm down to 5100.  

So are they going to keep balance chasing me back down to 100 bucks (where I was a year ago) or will it level off if I get my credit profile under control?

As a little bit of background, I moved in the fall and as a result, my credit cards are maxed out.  I should be getting a sizable bonus in a couple of weeks (several thousand dollars) and plan to get all my credit cards down to reasonable utilization levels... Hopefully resulting in a significant jump in my FICO scores (which are in the 570-600 range).  I have been keeping baddies to a minimum (1 30-day past due on an unrelated account a couple of months ago -- no new collections -- oldest collection is from 2010).  Not planning on looking for any additional credit or tradelines so no new inquiries...

So have I screwed the pooch in terms of Macy's and need to just basically write them off?  Or once my balances/finances stableize, will they ease off on me?

Anyone with experience and/or crystal ball would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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As other's mentioned above, it's the recent late payment that likely put you on their radar + other high utilized accounts.  So, only time will tell which kind of reverts to the previous thread you made not long ago given the same situation, albeit it appears your CL was decreased as well recently.

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@designated_knitter wrote:

Well, an update:

I = idiot (but y'all have probably figured that out already and some have pointed it out with varying degrees of tact ;-)

I just got off the phone with the backdoor number and came away feeling like a complete and utter fool.

Apparently, they didn't reduce my CL from 5400 to 3500.... they reduced it from 5400 to 5300 (just 100 dollars).  I'm not normally dyslexic but she read it to me and I reread it and darned if she wasn't right.  SOOOOOO, back to Plan A -- paying down the other credit cards so they aren't maxed out which, at this point, will probably have a huge positive impact on my fico score...

Hopefully, if I do that and get the utilization under control and am able to continue digging out of debt, they won't credit chase TOO much (and frankly, if they do... i deserve it and it won't be a huge loss.

And the bed -- covered in 24K gold over sterling.  (Kidding -- I had a balance before and the bed maxed me out with Macys.)

Thank you to everyone.  I really feel stoooooopid and can't believe I had such a huge lapse in reading comprehension!  But if I had to make a mistake, I'm glad that was it.

Cheers.

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