does "largest past balance" get counted for anything in FICO scoring?

[haulingthescoreup]

OK, here's how bored I am, I guess--when you look at the history on each account, there is a category called "largest past balance." Does FICO look at this and see that, once upon a time, your util was right on up there? I've never gotten a snotty comment on a FICO report mentioning this, but why do they list this, if they don't use it in some way?

Examples (these are from a FICO EX report):

Account type [?] Credit Card, Terms REV
Credit limit [?] $7,000
Largest past balance [?] $6,773
Credit Type [?] Revolving
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $10

Account type [?] Credit Card, Terms REV
Credit limit [?] $30,000
Largest past balance [?] $2,111
Credit Type [?] Revolving
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $15

I don't have any burning urge to ask for a CL on the first, but if FICO gets twitchy seeing that I once had that high of a util, maybe I should. It's a bit irritating if they do count it, because it was for one month exactly when I put part of DD#1's college tuition on MC. thanks!

[Anonymous]

My understanding is "Largest past balance" is only used when a CL is not displayed.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering the same hauling, since the ccc's treat over the limits and lates the same, in their fee structure(late fee/over the limit fee; raising you to maximum default rate for either).

I've been treating them as equally as bad "baddies", even though lates are the only one's that show up on a cr.

[haulingthescoreup]

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Timothy wrote:
My understanding is "Largest past balance" is only used when a CL is not displayed.

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OK, thanks! I'll go find something else to obsess over.

Sylvia, I know what you mean about the "over limits" showing. My one store card showed an overlimits by about $10 (late fees, of course!) I made sure once I had the account revived that they raised the CL to hide that, at least from other lenders!

[Anonymous]

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Timothy wrote:
My understanding is "Largest past balance" is only used when a CL is not displayed.

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I've noticed on my Equifax report (only), that "Largest past balance" is noted only on my "Closed Accounts," where no CL is displayed. 

[Anonymous]

Exactly hauling. My soul purpose in life when I first came here was to see how I could get my CL's raised on all my cc's, to escape the awful over the limit fee, and being raised to default interest rate.

But as my journey here continued, one thing led to another, which led to another. And now it's gotton bigger than the both of me.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I've noticed on my Equifax report (only), that "Largest past balance" is noted only on my "Closed Accounts," where no CL is displayed.

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Does it make you as crazy as it makes me that there is so little consistency across the three CRA's? The details above were from my EX FICO; these are from my EQ FICO; nothing about high balance:

Date opened [?] Nov, 2004
Date of last activity [?] Sep, 2007
Credit limit [?] $7,000
Credit Type [?] Revolving
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $10

Date opened [?] Dec, 2006
Date of last activity [?] Nov, 2007
Credit limit [?] $30,000
Credit Type [?] Revolving
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $15

TU also shows the highest balance. On my closed accounts, all three have a box for largest past balance, but EQ has $0 there, which is a pretty neat trick, considering that I had a 30-day back in June 01 on that highest $0 balance.

I don't expect scores to come out the same; I think each CRA has its own biases, which is fine, but you'd think that they could display information halfway consistently.

[Dawn]

I am assuming (maybe incorrectly) that most of the data presented to the CRAs is in an electronic format and that most of that should be flowing through a software system that automatically merges the data into the CRAs' databases. 

Unless there is reliable and efficient communication and coordination between both sides ... requiring consistent methods of identifying and labeling various elements of the data that is being shared, it is no longer surprising to me that there is so much confusion between the way the OC assumes will be done with the data they are reporting,  and how the CRA labels and codes the data once they receive it. 

If the updates are, for the most part, handled electronically, the human factor when something gets kicked out and requires manual intervention has got to add to the things we see that cause so much confusion in our minds about how the data messes with our lives.

Gee ... I wish we had someone here who has the lovely job of preparing files to be submitted to the CRAs ... and someone who works for a CRA who could explain exactly how this process works and how it gets so convoluted at times.

[haulingthescoreup]

I agree, I think a lot does get tangled up in the coding and transmission and posting.

But on these different CRA reports, EQ doesn't even have a "box" for highest credit limit to report. It's not that no one has posted the info, they didn't design a place for that info to go. So they must not think it's very useful for a CC.

HOWEVER, on my home equity line of credit, which EQ chooses to regard as revolving, here's what they have:

Date opened [?] Sep, 2007
Date of last activity [?] Sep, 2007
Largest past balance [?] $50,000
Credit Type [?] Revolving
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $0
Descriptions [?]

* Home equity
* Line of credit

EQ doesn't show that I have a $50K LOC, they show that my largest past balance was $50K. Which it's not --I've only pulled $3K and already paid back $1K of that. The other two show it as CL of $50,000 and largest past balance of $3,056. I mean, that's just ridiculous! Make up your minds, people, and when you do, post correct info.

[Dawn]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
I agree, I think a lot does get tangled up in the coding and transmission and posting.

But on these different CRA reports, EQ doesn't even have a "box" for highest credit limit to report. It's not that no one has posted the info, they didn't design a place for that info to go. So they must not think it's very useful for a CC.

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Are you looking at the reports that come directly from the CRA  or the MyFico report generated from "some" of the data from the CRAs?

On my "official" Equifax reports, for the  open / closed / and inactive Revolving accts there are fields for:

High Credit

AND

Credit Limit

On the MyFico EQ report there is:

Largest Past Balance (closed or inactive revolving accts)

OR

Credit Limit (current open revolving accts)

However, the data that gets pulled over into the MyFico report from the fields in the official EQ report does not always match up field for field. 

On the closed/inactive accounts they take the Credit Limit from the EQ report and put it in the Largest Past Balance field in the MyFico EQ report (not what you would expect.) 

Where there was a $-0- in the CL field on the EQ report, MyFico EQ picked up the High Credit and placed it in the Largest Past Balance field on the MyFico report, as you would have expected anyway.

No wonder we are going cross-eyed trying to make sense out of our reports!   MyFico is making it more confusing by criss-crossing data and eliminating fields that are on the original reports.