topic Re: Preventing Balance Chasing in Credit Cards

Preventing Balance Chasing

FICOdawg — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 19:55:06 GMT

Is there a way to prevent balance chasing? I've had my two Chase cards since 2009 ish and have used them for big purchases years ago but until last year just rolled smaller recurring balances from work travel. Last Summer I near maxed them during my divorce and have been paying down the balances relatively quickly start in late October.

I there a risk to balance chasing? How do I avoid it? One card I'm about to pay off the remaining $7500 balance (in Nov was in the $17xxx range with a $18,400 limit) in one shot and the other card I'm about to pay $5000 off of the balance in one go.

Would suck to have my utilization change because of them chasing a balance.

So far they haven't balance chased me but is there a way to mitigate the chance of it? Should I step it down like down to 9% and then to zero the next month or does it matter?

This is all the revolving debt I have and plan to get CL increase once paid off assuming I don't get a balance chasing suprise. This is a one time thing to get the balances that high and will return to just charging monthly expenses for points going forward.

Re: Preventing Balance Chasing

Gunnerboy — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 23:31:42 GMT

From my experience, it was the result of high-utilization (across three tradelines), minimum payments, and continuous credit use.

Keep paying off big chunks of your balances each month. You should be okay.

Re: Preventing Balance Chasing

Kforce — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 16:18:06 GMT

No real way to mitigate the chance of it.

Just keep pays off large chunks.

If they have not chased you, you are probably in the clear.

Good Luck.

Re: Preventing Balance Chasing

FICOdawg — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 23:20:07 GMT

I was just wondering if there are know triggers. You'd think they would balance chase as the balance grows, not as it shrinks. But then they can't snare people into perpetual minimum payments for life while charging 20+% interest.

Re: Preventing Balance Chasing

Aim_High — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 02:38:36 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:
I was just wondering if there are know triggers. You'd think they would balance chase as the balance grows, not as it shrinks. But then they can't snare people into perpetual minimum payments for life while charging 20+% interest.

I agree with @Gunnerboy and @Kforce that you're probably in the clear now, as long as you continue aggressively paying down the balances. That is the key. How quickly Adverse Action is triggered, whether it's balance chasing, raising APRs, or closing your account depends on profile and the lender's tolerance. No, as much as lenders love to collect fees and interest, they actually don't want you to carry large balances for a long time since it indicates they may not get paid. So the biggest red flag, besides running up that high utilization suddenly to begin with, is paying just the minimum due or close to it. That indicates either a reluctance to repay or inability to repay, neither of which is good. For a young or damaged profile, just running up the debt could trigger actions. For a developed profile, it could take longer. The point is just avoid running it up and then repay it as quickly as possible when you need to use it.