topic Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick in Credit Cards

will my CL decrease. please advise quick

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:09:46 GMT

my first real credit card was issued about 2 months ago. wells fargo with a 5k limit. i also have an older hsbc best buy card with a 2600 limit. i havnt purchased much on my best buy but i continue to pay my balance to keep my history, eventhough i can cut a check tomorrow for the balance...

i want to cherish my wells fargo 5k. i dont want a credit line decrease...ever! how can i play this? if i just charged measley charges in the 100 to 200 dollar range on a monthly basis on a 5k card will well fargo eventually kill my credit line? how many months before they do so? should i take wifey away on vacation or start buying xmas gifts early and start charging larger numbers? not sure if it matters but it is a new card. 2 months old. still in my intro apr period of 0.0

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

Uncle_Money — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:16:53 GMT

You should never charge "larger" charges unless you can afford to pay them off quickly.

Simply show usage on the card each month. No need to charge large purchases. You can also add some recurring charges on it. The one obvious thing you should never do is pay late, ever. Do this and you'll be fine.

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

andre181 — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:24:56 GMT

Uncle Money is right. You do not have to charge a lot every month. If you only want to charge like $100-200 a month, that is fine. They won't cut your limit for not using your card enough. But make sure you use the card on a regular basis, at lease a couple times a month.

My recommendation would be to use the card regularly, and pay off all of your entire balance at the end of the month. Wells Fargo really likes when you pay in full every month. So if you spend $300 that month, pay back the entire $300 when you get your statement.

Of course when making large purchases, paying it off 1 month month isn't always possible. If you do make a large purchase, try to have it paid off within 2-3 months or sooner if possible. There is nothing wrong with making a large purchases, but keeping large balances over time will decrease your credit score.

Good luck and congrats on the new card!

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

CHARGE_IT — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:46:36 GMT

You are a little confused; keeping large balances over time on your credit card does not lower your fico score. It does contribute to the amount of your utilization, but that in and o f itself will have no affect if you are in good shape across the entirity of you profile.

@andre181 wrote:
Uncle Money is right. You do not have to charge a lot every month. If you only want to charge like $100-200 a month, that is fine. They won't cut your limit for not using your card enough. But make sure you use the card on a regular basis, at lease a couple times a month.

My recommendation would be to use the card regularly, and pay off all of your entire balance at the end of the month. Wells Fargo really likes when you pay in full every month. So if you spend $300 that month, pay back the entire $300 when you get your statement.

Of course when making large purchases, paying it off 1 month month isn't always possible. If you do make a large purchase, try to have it paid off within 2-3 months or sooner if possible. There is nothing wrong with making a large purchases, but keeping large balances over time will decrease your credit score.

Good luck and congrats on the new card!

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

andre181 — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:03:42 GMT

I am not confused. After rereading my post, I do agree that it was a poor choice of wording. I should have further explained that large purchases = higher util. = lower credit score.

Thank you for my misstatement.

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:54:57 GMT

large purchase does mean higher utilization, but im not talking about chargeing 4k on a 5k card and just keeping a balance...that would be oddly unpractical. i was curious as to what banks factor in when they choose to lower ones credit limit from 5k to sayyy 1500?! is it how often they charge? is it the amount they charge? is it the running balances they keep?

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:27:13 GMT

IMO, Using the card for your normal day to day expenses and paying in full each month is the best way to keep your limit. I would keep my balance under 50% for several months. I would not make more than 2 or 3 payments a month.

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:32:15 GMT

This varies by bank. For instance, HSBC has closed many accounts for non-usage after a couple of months. But you're asking about varying levels of usage, of course.

FWIW, I have never had a CLD, other than a temporary one by BofA several years ago when they were doing their hysteria thing and chopping everyone. I got it back.

I've never done big charges on any of my cards, other than USAA for home remodeling and several BT's on BofA. I don't even manage to use my cards every month.

I've gotten increases on every card where I've requested. I haven't requested an increase on Chase or Citi Home Depot, because I don't want a useless hard inquiry.

Unless someone comes along and posts that yes, from personal experience , Wells Fargo CLD'd them despite absolutely no change on their credit reports with WF or anyone else, no score decrease, no recent app spree, and no internal history problems with WF, I wouldn't worry about it.

If you want to have a good-sized volume of charges running through the card each month, you can get as many expenses as you usually cover with cash, checks, or debit cards onto the CC: gas, groceries, cell phone bill, cable, etc etc. As long as it's something that you've budgeted for and can pay off without a moment's hesitation, you'll be fine.

And banks/ CCC's don't care a flip about whether you pay right before the statement date, so that it reports $0, or afterwards, so that it reports a balance. They base any decisions on their records, and they can see how much you've been charging (or not charging) each month. Paying early is a FICO scoring decision.

If you do wind up using your card a lot, you might want to consider paying at least part of it off before the statement date, so that your FICO scores don't wildly swing around. But again, that's for scoring purposes and shouldn't affect how WF treats you, unless they have some sort of internal trigger for review from your scores suddenly dropping, as might happen with only two cards and large-ish balances reporting. hth

eta: Wolf3 out-typed me!

Re: will my CL decrease. please advise quick

Creditaddict — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:46:05 GMT

+1 Hauling

If you can get 5k through WF, you can probably get 5k from someone else to. I would not change the way you want to use your card if it's going to benefit you just because you are worried about a CLD. If a bank doesn't like how you are charging, find one that does. I say when you first get a credit card is the best time to put lots of use on it, because that will establish in there system the kind of charging you plan to do, vs tip toe in for 6 months and then start using it like your really wanted to use it from the beginning, that would be out of your norm pattern and probably would get you looked at closer then if you had just started charging that way from the beginning when they didn't know how you would be. They gave you 5k, so they should be comfortable with you charging 5k... I would pay in full if at all possible though and you should have no problems.