topic Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD in Credit Cards

Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Thu, 04 May 2017 11:34:03 GMT

I have been trying to pay down my cards, dropping anything maxed out or nearly so, and cards with multiple balances, i.e. BTs, advances, or Promos, first. My Choice card had a $2800 CL and I made a payment large enough the utilization should have dropped to around 24% for this statement, then I could take it down more next time. Barclaycard dropped my CL to $1050 leaving the utilzation at 70%. Who do I call about this? Is this normal when trying to pay down high balances?

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Anonymous — Thu, 04 May 2017 11:41:03 GMT

It's very common with prime banks to do this -- it's called "balance chasing".

When you run very high utilizations or go over limit on one or many cards, banks can see this and perform an AA (adverse action) to cut your credit limits as you pay them down.

Once your overall and individual utilizations are under 30% and preferably under 10%, some banks will start offering you CLIs again.

Any new derogatories?

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

AverageJoesCredit — Thu, 04 May 2017 12:18:37 GMT

Barclay is keen on this recently. Yes i know all banks can and do but Sir Barclays seems to wake up drinking tea but craving coffee

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Thu, 04 May 2017 12:37:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's very common with prime banks to do this -- it's called "balance chasing".

When you run very high utilizations or go over limit on one or many cards, banks can see this and perform an AA (adverse action) to cut your credit limits as you pay them down.

Once your overall and individual utilizations are under 30% and preferably under 10%, some banks will start offering you CLIs again.

Any new derogatories?

No, I have no derogatories, no late payments, just high balances and utilization, but I have never gone over limit. I always make more than the minimum payment and sometimes more than one per month. The inquiries I have are all from car shopping, but no one sees them that way. I have been working with a financial advisor who gave me a plan of paying off/down several cards at a time and applying the freed up money to the next lowest balances. She said I would see a score increase shortly. So far I've just been losing points.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Anonymous — Thu, 04 May 2017 12:51:28 GMT

Once your utilization reports under 30% on all tradelines your score will go up for sure. Once it's below 10% across the board, you'll get another boost.

Unfortunately, balance chasing is one way that hurts FICO scoring because your utilization never appears to drop until you've gotten it all paid off as much as possible.

This is one reason folks with great credit like to have so many credit cards without annual fees: if one or two vendors CLD, you still have breathing space for overall utilization.

Do you have any active installment loans reporting?

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

CreditInspired — Thu, 04 May 2017 13:40:02 GMT

More goes into scoring than than just paying down balances. What's your AAOA? What's your individual utilization for every card in your arsenal? Then, what's your overall utilization? Like ABCD said, <30%, but preferably less than <10% for maximum scoring. If the shopping was done in a consecutive 30-day period for a vehicle or even a mortgage, I thought lenders view this as 1 inquiry during a manual review. Also there is a breakdown of different utilization percentages: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90, 91-100+. I got this from CK last year and use it as a reference point. Hopefully, Barclays is your only card with a large balance. If, not, continue to work on getting those balances paid down as quickly as possible so no other CCCs take AA. Good luck.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

happypill — Thu, 04 May 2017 15:39:37 GMT

Other than payment history, the most important factor in FICO scoring is utilization - much more important than inquiries which a lot of people focus on way too much. Even if you've never missed a payment, high balances that stay high are an indication to banks of potential trouble. And based on your description that you're having trouble and working with someone to help figure out how to pay your balances down, it would seem that their risk model is accurately assessing some concern in this case.

Yes, balance chasing sucks and it makes it that much more difficult to crawl out of hole, at least in terms of credit scoring. In your case, you probably shouldn't worry about score and just focus on paying your balances down. The longer you let high utilization linger, the riskier it will look and the more likely other lenders will follow suit. Barclay's is very sensitive and one of the most likely to balance chase, but they aren't alone if the situation looks risky.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Thu, 04 May 2017 17:09:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Once your utilization reports under 30% on all tradelines your score will go up for sure. Once it's below 10% across the board, you'll get another boost.

Unfortunately, balance chasing is one way that hurts FICO scoring because your utilization never appears to drop until you've gotten it all paid off as much as possible.

This is one reason folks with great credit like to have so many credit cards without annual fees: if one or two vendors CLD, you still have breathing space for overall utilization.

Do you have any active installment loans reporting?

I still have an auto loan and a personal loan. I just paid off one auto loan 4 months early and my scores dropped an average of 25 points on each CRA.
My oldest card is over 20 years, my newest account is the auto loan at 8 months making my AAoA about 7 years, yes the car shopping was done within 30 days. I engaged financial help because I recently came into some unexpected money and wanted to know the best way to use it in paying my accounts down. Which would be most beneficial to me and enable me to refinance my auto loan with another lender. I was already paying everything down slowly and utilization was dropping each month. The utilization is high on most cards, I have some between 5%-25% or less, several 50%-80%, but few over 90% because I've been trying to take care of those. It will take a lot longer to get my balances/utilization down if the CCs keep dropping limits. I don't expect another windfall for a while, I was expecting to do some good with this one. It looks like it backfired.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

sjt — Thu, 04 May 2017 17:17:26 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:
I have been trying to pay down my cards, dropping anything maxed out or nearly so, and cards with multiple balances, i.e. BTs, advances, or Promos, first. My Choice card had a $2800 CL and I made a payment large enough the utilization should have dropped to around 24% for this statement, then I could take it down more next time. Barclaycard dropped my CL to $1050 leaving the utilzation at 70%. Who do I call about this? Is this normal when trying to pay down high balances?

Call the Portfolio Department of Barclays. Ask them for a restoration of your credit line.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

CreditInspired — Fri, 05 May 2017 14:12:09 GMT

I agree w/Happypill. Paying down balances at this moment in time should outweigh scores. And you are wrong about your plan backfiring. Paying down your balances is always a good thing! And, it's not good to have balances on "every" card, even if it they are small balances. If you provide MyFICOers with each CC, interest rate, CL, and balance, along with the amount of money you can put toward each, we can definitely assist you with the best way of going forward.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Fri, 05 May 2017 15:03:00 GMT

@CreditInspired wrote:
I agree w/Happypill. Paying down balances at this moment in time should outweigh scores. And you are wrong about your plan backfiring. Paying down your balances is always a good thing! And, it's not good to have balances on "every" card, even if it they are small balances. If you provide MyFICOers with each CC, interest rate, CL, and balance, along with the amount of money you can put toward each, we can definitely assist you with the best way of going forward.

I tried that once before and was told I needed to make more money. I lost a good amount of income not too long back and I've had no luck at selling anything. I don't mind listing everything again, I would like a good plan that works. I've been working with the snowball method, but I also can't avoid emergencies. I will get another list together if you think people can really help. The reason I am concerned about score is I have a really bad auto loan and my CU will refinance if I get my Experian Auto score to a certain level.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

CreditInspired — Fri, 05 May 2017 15:29:55 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:
@CreditInspired wrote:
I agree w/Happypill. Paying down balances at this moment in time should outweigh scores. And you are wrong about your plan backfiring. Paying down your balances is always a good thing! And, it's not good to have balances on "every" card, even if it they are small balances. If you provide MyFICOers with each CC, interest rate, CL, and balance, along with the amount of money you can put toward each, we can definitely assist you with the best way of going forward.

I tried that once before and was told I needed to make more money. I lost a good amount of income not too long back and I've had no luck at selling anything. I don't mind listing everything again, I would like a good plan that works. I've been working with the snowball method, but I also can't avoid emergencies. I will get another list together if you think people can really help. The reason I am concerned about score is I have a really bad auto loan and my CU will refinance if I get my Experian Auto score to a certain level.

Sometimes making more money is just not possible. If you have not already allocated all of the extra monies that you came into, maybe we can help you with how to allocate it. I can't recall if anyone has suggested this yet; but if you haven't done so already, call your CCCs and see if interest rates can be reduced on your CCs.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Fri, 05 May 2017 17:36:17 GMT

@sjt wrote:
@Reighn9 wrote:
I have been trying to pay down my cards, dropping anything maxed out or nearly so, and cards with multiple balances, i.e. BTs, advances, or Promos, first. My Choice card had a $2800 CL and I made a payment large enough the utilization should have dropped to around 24% for this statement, then I could take it down more next time. Barclaycard dropped my CL to $1050 leaving the utilzation at 70%. Who do I call about this? Is this normal when trying to pay down high balances?
Call the Portfolio Department of Barclays. Ask them for a restoration of your credit line.

That did not go well. The agent said my credit line was reduced during a routine credit report because my balances are too high on all my accounts. The decrease is not permanent and as the balances go down I can ask for a credit line increase. He told me it was all in the letter I got and I could get a free copy of my credit report. I mentioned I never received a letter, my balances had gone done in the last 3 months. I told him I just made a payment to this account substantially reducing the balance. All he would say is the company is concerned about the high balances on my other accounts and if I bring them down I can ask for an increase. He just kept repeating that when I asked if that is how the company feels about on time payments, paying down card balance and treats loyal customers. He gave me an amount of $117165 as the TU balance today of all bankcards and retail cards that the company used lower my limit that posted on the statement dated 05/03/2017. I can find a balance close to that on CreditKarma TU with cards posting between 4-25 of April before any April payments were made. I use myFico 3B monitoring and the most recent TU alert on total card balances (I added both reported) was 04/28 at $108498. My overall CL is/was $140000 or so, not sure with the decreases. The balances have come down at least $7000 since January, possibly more. Those numbers are just what TU shows, my balances are a little lower. The agent also did say the timing was bad, but then repeated his reason.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Fri, 05 May 2017 17:41:22 GMT

@CreditInspired wrote:

Sometimes making more money is just not possible. If you have not already allocated all of the extra monies that you came into, maybe we can help you with how to allocate it. I can't recall if anyone has suggested this yet; but if you haven't done so already, call your CCCs and see if interest rates can be reduced on your CCs.

I have already called some CCCs to try to lower interest rates and so far have not had any luck. Not all of them are real high, and the highest ones like Synchrony Bank have a high range even at the low end, but I will keep calling around. I have allocated most of the extra monies already. If I can ever get a lawyer to sit down and talk to me I might be able to have some more come in some time down the road.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Anonymous — Fri, 05 May 2017 17:47:12 GMT

I'm sorry this happened, OP. I think that many banks upon seeing $117,000 of credit card debt, especially when your total CL is $140,000, would really panic.

Even $108,000 being owed after April payments is too high.

That is an extremely high amount. I hope you are able to get some assistance to reduce the balances. I'm sorry that you are in this situation.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

CreditInspired — Fri, 05 May 2017 17:58:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry this happened, OP. I think that many banks upon seeing $117,000 of credit card debt, especially when your total CL is $140,000, would really panic.

Even $108,000 being owed after April payments is too high.

That is an extremely high amount. I hope you are able to get some assistance to reduce the balances. I'm sorry that you are in this situation.

Wait a sec. Did I read the figures incorrectly? I thought the outstanding balance was $10.8K (not $108K) and the CL was $14K (not $140K). Either way, though, it is still high utilization. But if it is indeed $117K CC debt, I'm shocked that any lender would allow it to go that high.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Reighn9 — Fri, 05 May 2017 18:51:04 GMT

It's discouraging though, when I try to do all the right things, make extra payments, on-time payments, pay off accounts and what I get is CLDs, closed accounts, and more emergencies to deal with. When I find an error on my CR and dispute it, I'm also rewarded with a CLD or account closure.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Anonymous — Fri, 05 May 2017 19:02:57 GMT

Outstanding cc debt as reported by OP above is $108,498. I don't know of too many lenders that would not CLD with that extremely high level of cc debt. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Luckily, they did not close the card outright.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

Dalmus — Fri, 05 May 2017 19:20:00 GMT

I've also noticed from a few different threads over the past year that Barclay's seems to NOT like large payments. You are not the only one to have this happen shortly after making a large payment. Now, whether it was because they had already decided to CLD you before you made your payment, or you ran afoul of their internal factors by paying "too much" is open for debate.

Although I agree with the last poster... With $108K in CC debt, I'm surprised this is the first AA you've seen. Although I'm not judging... "Stuff" happens sometimes.

If youi're not going to be in the market for a loan in the next few years, then I wouldn't worry about your score. Get that balance paid down if you can. As long as you're making payments on time, your score will bounce back.

Re: Barclaycard Choice Privileges CLD

heyryan — Fri, 05 May 2017 19:28:41 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:

It's discouraging though, when I try to do all the right things, make extra payments, on-time payments, pay off accounts and what I get is CLDs, closed accounts, and more emergencies to deal with. When I find an error on my CR and dispute it, I'm also rewarded with a CLD or account closure.

I went through the balance chase fun with Compass and Citi a few years ago, and it is definitely frustrating, but if I had to find a silver lining, at least it was educational.

Unforunately, in a lenders eyes, you're doing MANY things right, but not all. If it wasn't a typo in your previous post and your balances really were 117165/140000 available, that's 83.6% utilization, which is considered very risky by most lenders. 30% of your FICO score is utlization, so that's probably killing your score. They also put a lot of emphasis in risk management on your ability to repay. Depending on what your income is, that can trigger red flags on their side, too. WIth over 100k in debt, they'll be a lot more panicked if you make $75000/yr vs $300000/yr.

Best advice I can give after being in a similar situation:

Try to not get discouraged. Keep up the on time, less than minumum payments. Fortunately, unlike late payments and charge offs, the score hit from high util. is temporary and will be diminished the more you can chip away from the debt. You should start seeing an upward trend as you pay off more and more.
Don't take it personally. They're a business, and they're just doing what they think will protect them from losses. My ego was definitely bruised when it happened to me, but I eventually recovered
If you can, try to not use credit cards for new spending for a while. Pay down, but don't add to the pile. As much as it galled me, I had to stick to my debit card for a year or two until everything was paid and scores rebounded a bit.

Keep doing the right things, it'll get better! Good luck to you!