How does having an Amex Black Card or similar impact your FICO?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Just wondering how having an Amex Black Card or another similar card with No Limit shows up and/or impacts your FICO score?

(My uncle is a my producer and has this card so just wondering).

[Revelate]

Traditionally any card which did not have a limit used the reported high balance for it's limit.

The Centurion's being a charge card though (assuming the Term of 1 month is reported on the tradeline) it's utilization is discounted on most currently used FICO models: EX for a mortgage pull the notable exception, and we've had an individual testing a high use charge card that mostly proved that Equifax FICO 8 does score it as well.

[sjt]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi,

Just wondering how having an Amex Black Card or another similar card with No Limit shows up and/or impacts your FICO score?

(My uncle is a my producer and has this card so just wondering).

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There is no impact. Doesn't matter if you have a green or Black charge card. ITs treated the same FICO scoring wise.

[Anonymous]

So you're saying a $500 limit card carries the same weight as a $500,000 card???

How about for non-Fico scores?

[Anonymous]

Yes, no single revolver account carries any more "weight" than another in a credit portfolio with respect to scoring.  The card with a huge credit limit will lower overall utilization as well as utilization on that card, but that doesn't have anything to do with scoring relative to other cards.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Note of clarification:

I have an AMEX green card and it is a NPSL charge card. I believe the AMEX black is also a NPSL charge card. Balances on these charge cards do not factor into aggregate utilization (assuming the card is coded properly). 

The only Fico model I know of that explicitly looks at charge card balances for scoring is Fico 98. In that case the factor looked at is (balance/high balance) where high balance is the highest total charge accumulated before paydown NOT a hidden credit limit. As an example:

1) Let's say you have a green card with a $35k hidden limit and the most you ever charged before paydown was $30k. Then your HB would be $30k

2) Let's say you have a black card with a $250k hidden limit and the most you ever charged on it before paydown was $30k. Then your HB would be $30k

If this month you let $10k report on either card your "card utlilzation" would be $10k/$30k = 33% in either case. The hidden balance is invisible to the CRAs and Fico scoring balance. This "utilization" is a scoring factor in EX Fico 98 which is one of the 3 mortgage scores. The other two CRA mortgage scores are based on Fico 04 and Fico 04 does not look at B/HB as a factor.

I have tested 100% B/HB on my AMEX NPSL charge card and can confirm EX Fico 98 (Classic and Enhanced versions) took a big "point in time" score hit but NO other Fico scores (Fico 09, Fico 08, Fico 04) were affected. True charge cards require payment in full and I could have paid off the card prior to statement cutting to avoid the 100% B/HB but, I wanted to test this factor. The score drop was only "point in time" and, as expected, recovered fully the next month when B/HB reported at zero.