topic Re: Amex Charge Card Balance in Credit Cards

Amex Charge Card Balance

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 06:01:07 GMT

I know Charge Card doen't affect your utilization % but yesterday when It reported a 227 balance it drop my creditkarma score by 10pts! Do you guys pay off your charge card balance before statement or let it report?

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

Open123 — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 06:10:34 GMT

You shouldn't worry about CK's point system. Just use them for free monitoring and alerts.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

myjourney — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:37:05 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
You shouldn't worry about CK's point system. Just use them for free monitoring and alerts.

+1000

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

lg8302ch — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:50:05 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
@Open123 wrote:
You shouldn't worry about CK's point system. Just use them for free monitoring and alerts.
+1000

+ 10'000

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

thom02099 — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:46:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I know Charge Card doen't affect your utilization % but yesterday when It reported a 227 balance it drop my creditkarma score by 10pts! Do you guys pay off your charge card balance before statement or let it report?

I ALWAYS pay off my AMEX cards before the due date, sometimes making several payments a month depending on the card and charges. I have never carried a balance on my charge cards, even though I have the pay over time option with the Gold.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

jsucool76 — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:38:28 GMT

Paying off before the statement is looked at two ways. A balance reporting can let an UW know you soent a lot of money that month, or it can report a high balance and give them an idea of what your internal limit is on the card.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:32:46 GMT

I didn't care much about CK score because my creditsecure score didn't change at all. I usually let my firstt balance post on all my credit cards, but most likely I'm gonna start paying before statement ends.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

jamesdwi — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:48:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I know Charge Card doen't affect your utilization % but yesterday when It reported a 227 balance it drop my creditkarma score by 10pts! Do you guys pay off your charge card balance before statement or let it report?

This is the question I am strugling with tonight, I have a balance of $802 on my Zync card, the statement will cut tomorow, should I pay it now or wait for 2 days, or a week? In anycase the bill will be paid long before the due date. I know published AMEX policy says they don't care just want to maximize my internal score with them. I want a CLI on my AMEX Blue which I have been denied for twice now, once after a CLD for carying a balance during the zero percent period. The money is sitting in my checking account as it has been as each charge was made earning interest.

BTW, just PIF AMEX Blue 4 days before the statement close date, and won't be used again till next billing cycle.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

youngandcreditwrthy — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:11:37 GMT

You got a cld for carrying a balance on BCE?!?
What was the util on it?

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

navigatethis12 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:23:58 GMT

Even though it doesn't factor into utilisation, it still counts as an account with a balance. I would not be comfortable with a 5 or 10 thousand balance reporting, no matter what it did to utilisation.

@Open123 wrote:
You shouldn't worry about CK's point system. Just use them for free monitoring and alerts.

Chase frequently used the Vantage score, so that score is at least something to care about on there.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

jamesdwi — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:43:40 GMT

@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
You got a cld for carrying a balance on BCE?!?
What was the util on it?

using about 33% of the UTL on the card, always made more than the minimum payment was charging on the card as well so wasn't really going down, had cash flow issues, that are now resolved. overal utilization on all cards was about 27% but mostly on 6 cards or so and DW's card was near Maxed out but i'm only a AU on it for bill paying purposes. Got a chase slate card about the same time for BT off the amex card which is now complete. And two other INQ's for other cards about the same time.

Current UTL is at 24% and heading down, In the garden since Dec 4th, when all this was going on, starting to get nice CLI's from GE's and will get this mess under controll, I figure in 3-4 months I will be down below 15%, and no INQ's for 6+ months I will get my CLI and my AMEX blue will be at 6+ k again, and my scores will be north of 700, since 5 baddies have fallen off my reports, one early and I will only have one baddie a 6 year old medical collection. No lates on any credit card in the last 7 years... Only had credit again for 4 years.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

E150GT — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:24:42 GMT

so whats the consenus? I am going to apply for a CSP next month and I have an amex reporting on the 19th with about $1k. Should I pay it before it closes so I when I app it shows a $0 balance or should I let them see my monthly spending? Its my only card I spend on.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

E150GT — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:42:07 GMT

bump

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

cashnocredit — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:09:44 GMT

I've let a balance report on Amex that was more than all my CLs combined. It had zero effect on my FICO score, my VantageScore went up a bit, and some FAKOs went down while others were unchanged.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

E150GT — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:11:32 GMT

but what about when applying to more credit? would they see that as bad?

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

nagisa — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:41:34 GMT

I always let my PRG report, but Citi denied me because of a reported balance on my charge card once... it wasn't even that big.... like $1k *eyeroll*. I tried explaining to the CSR that it was a charge card and I'd paid it off already, but they still thought it was a revolved balance and did another HP to confirm I paid it off.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

cashnocredit — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:53:49 GMT

@E150GT wrote:
but what about when applying to more credit? would they see that as bad?

No, with the possible exception of apping while the high balance is the same as the current balance. Once the current balance drops to normal levels it's all good. Also a strong indicator you can handle larger balances.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

E150GT — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:59:25 GMT

maybe ill pay half of it. My amex balance is pretty much the same every month give or a take a few dollars

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

cashnocredit — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:12:58 GMT

@E150GT wrote:
maybe ill pay half of it. My amex balance is pretty much the same every month give or a take a few dollars

Check your high balance. That's the key factor they will compare to the current balance on a manual review. My high balance is way over my usual Amex usage. It's one of the things I value about Amex. A great ability to do the occasional high spend on vacations or whatnot.

Re: Amex Charge Card Balance

E150GT — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:23:48 GMT

@cashnocredit wrote:
@E150GT wrote:
maybe ill pay half of it. My amex balance is pretty much the same every month give or a take a few dollars
Check your high balance. That's the key factor they will compare to the current balance on a manual review. My high balance is way over my usual Amex usage. It's one of the things I value about Amex. A great ability to do the occasional high spend on vacations or whatnot.

Experian is showing the statement balance as a high balance...