topic Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased in Credit Cards

Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 15:18:00 GMT

A few of my non-store credit cards are maxed out. I am going to be paying a large chunk of them down, in an effort to raise my score and get ready to refinance my mortgage. I am afraid that they are going to balance chase me. So far, care credit lowered my limit about $6k, but I wasn't using it anyways. I will be paying down Discover and Capital One. Is there a payment strategy to help me not have my limits lowered ? Make several smaller payments? Make one big payment? Big payment on one, let it report and then pay the others down? Am I just screwed no matter what I do?

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 15:41:14 GMT

Just pay them off and don't worry about the balance chasing. Showing you can knock them out makes it easy to recover a CL by calling to get it restored.

The biggest boost in scores will come from $0 balances on all but 1 and the 1 you leave a balance on should be less than 8.9% of the CL and should be a major bank issued card.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

RSX — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 15:57:42 GMT

Care only dropped yours due to lack of use

my discount tire (sync as well) dropped mine due to lack of use. I called them and got most of it back right away. Then I started using it for gas, and now it is higher than it ever was

call and ask for Care to raise it back up. Then start using it at Walgreens once a month.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Girlzilla88 — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:55:21 GMT

You can also do 8.9% across the board i noticed that had the biggest jump for me instead of AZEO because some like seeing a balance of some sort.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Girlzilla88 — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:56:03 GMT

Sorry to clarify I mean if you had 3 cards have one at 1% one at 2% and one at like 5% to equal up to 8.9 across all not all being 8.9 each....no no LOL

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:36:19 GMT

@Anonymous

Hey there!

I know exactly what you are going through as I was in a similar situation not too long ago. Anecdotally, I have only ever been balance chased when making huge or out of the ordinary large payments. This happened with my Citi (aadvantage) and Amazon Store card at some point early-mid 2018.

I was fortunate enough to somehow stop the bleeding after only the single CLD's with those cards. Amazon bounce backed fully and more than tripled the SL and Citi approved me for another card and never messed with my AAdvantage again (it is still at the reduced limit tho).

Again the goal is to pay down to avoid AA, but my thought is that a very large payment may get someone to look directly at your account, or maybe trigger an automated review in the system.

My balance chase nightmare was short lived and isolated, but it was terrible. The way I survived was to make significant but not uncharecteristic payments to lower the balance over time. I did this because I loved these particular cards and wanted to avoid closure. I tried to maybe cross a UTI threshold each few months (But immediately get out of "maxed" zone if possible).

I am still scared to this day (over a year later) to make large payments on my Citi AAdvantage or ask for an increase. I am sure I am out of the danger zone by now but still...

Also... If you do not care if they close these cards just pay them off. I did carem so I took this strategy that worked for me.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:28:01 GMT

I wouldn't be worried about balance chasing honestly. If it happens, it happens, but if you're already maxed out from a scoring perspective, you won't have any additional point loss and the shedding of unsecured debt will just help your mortgage app anyway.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:29:02 GMT

I just saw that the cards in question are Discover and CapOne. Historically I do not think they are known for balance chasing.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:33:09 GMT

I currently have 16 cards. One at $0, a few under $1k and the highest is at $10k. It looks like I can easily get all of them under 68.9%, and then I will pay some of the smaller down to $0. There are a few that I might close out completely, but may just keep around and SD them to help optimize my utilization. I have $12k available to me, and paying down to 68.9% will take just over $7k. I want to keep about $2k in my savings for just in case, so I have a little extra to play with to lower some other cards or may just take care of some stuff around my house. I just want to get them all out of the danger zone and lower/eliminate some monthly payments.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:34:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I just saw that the cards in question are Discover and CapOne. Historically I do not think they are known for balance chasing.

Good to know! Discover is by far my biggest card and I don't want to lose the limit!

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

GApeachy — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:36:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

my thought is that a very large payment may get someone to look directly at your account, or maybe trigger an automated review in the system.

I'm not arguing but really? I make large, small x's many...just whatever whenever. Is it really a bad thing to do large payments? I feel like I need a playbook.

Have other's here seen large payments trigger a review? Again, I'm not arguing or doubting.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:37:36 GMT

You should confirm that with other members, but I have just never heard of it happening with Disco.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

NRB525 — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:43:57 GMT

If you have
1) High utilization and
2) High interest rates ( store cards )

then Balance Chasing is the least of your worries. Pay down the cards as fast as you can, to try to reduce interest costs. If Balances are Chased, so be it. You need to reduce the debt. No one can forecast when balance chasing will occur, or when it will stop.

After you get the utilization under control, then you can begin to look around and perhaps ask for reinstatement of some credit lines. The most important result is you’ve gotten utilization under control.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:56:48 GMT

@GApeachy wrote:

Again, I guess it is profile and card issuer dependent. I did not recieve a "financial review" so to speak. I just had these cards (and others) at near max for awhile, then paid it down to less than 50%. When I logged in the next day or so I saw my CL around 52% of what it was ... About $100 over my balance. ) -- i.e - balance chased. It would be an incredible "coincidence" that they had previously planned that CLD on that particular day, mid cycle, when I had given no indication that I would be paying a substantial portion of my balance at that time.

I just think they saw an opportunity to get some of the credit that they extended back before I charged it up again.

I make multiple payments on cards now totaling the same amount or more throughout the statement cycle. In my experience, a very large payment can some times take a bit longer to clear, it stands to reason that perhaps it triggers something, somewhere, and for some credit companies.

All speculation and personal experience of course. And this wouldn't apply to non-maxed profiles.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:46:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You should confirm that with other members, but I have just never heard of it happening with Disco.

CLDs do happen with Disco, they're just rare.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

GApeachy — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:51:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
And this wouldn't apply to non-maxed profiles.

Okay, gotcha...thanks!

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:55:11 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Pay down the cards as fast as you can, to try to reduce interest costs. If Balances are Chased, so be it. You need to reduce the debt. No one can forecast when balance chasing will occur, or when it will stop.

I agree with this, but for my very specific situation I was willing and able to pay more interest temporarily to make sure (or increase the likelihood in my eyes) of keeping the card open. I am pretty sure had I made another big payment on that card shortly after the CLD, I would not have it anymore.

I definitely made the right decision for me, but again, it certainly is not for everyone.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Remedios — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:59:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@GApeachy wrote:
Again, I guess it is profile and card issuer dependent. I did not recieve a "financial review" so to speak. I just had these cards (and others) at near max for awhile, then paid it down to less than 50%. When I logged in the next day or so I saw my CL around 52% of what it was ... About $100 over my balance. ) -- i.e - balance chased. It would be an incredible "coincidence" that they had previously planned that CLD on that particular day, mid cycle, when I given no indication that I would be paying a substantial portion of my balance at that time.

I just think they saw an opportunity to get some of the credited they extended back before I charged it up again.

I make multiple payments on cards now totaling the same amount or more throughout the statement cycle. In my experience, a very large payment can some times take a bit longer to clear, it stands to reason that perhaps it triggers something, somewhere, and for some credit companies.

All speculation and personal experience of course. And this wouldn't apply to non-maxed profiles.

That's a simple programming

They already determined you were a high risk, and once you paid, computer did what it was told to do, in your case, prevent you from bringing the balance back up.

If blance chasing starts, sometimes it doesn't stop till the card is closed.

Other times it stops when risk is at more tolerable level.

If the card is not closed, it's quite possible to bring the limits back to where they were over time

Prolonging the agony and maintaining high balance only makes things worse. That's what started it in a first place.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 19:11:22 GMT

@Remedios

Fair enough... I mean neither of us (to my knowledge, but correct me if I am wrong) work for these credit card companies, or are privy to the algorithms that their software uses to trigger AA and balance chasing.

So... I guess it is all speculation at this point from both me and you. All I know is, having gone through it personally and after digging through this site for the answers to no avail, is what worked for me.

I am just trying to provide advice for anyone (either now or in the future) who is looking for an answer with the priority of keeping the card at a semi-reasonable cost (paying more interest than necessary temporarily). I think anyone would be hard pressed to convince me that a subsequent equally large payment after my initial (and only) CLD wouldn't have resulted in further balance chasing.

Re: Afraid of Getting Balance Chased

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 21:17:30 GMT

What's the point of a high credit limit if you can't really use it?