topic Re: Charge card balance? in Credit Cards

Charge card balance?

cabronsaim — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 21:19:37 GMT

I have an AMEX PRG. My balance this month is almost 10k.

Should I pay it off before the statement or after?

I noticed the balance shows in my CR. I undersatand showing a 10k balance may affect the CR for a month or so, but what in the long run? Does it show me as a stronger user if somoene analysing my CR sees that I am able to use and pay 10k in a single month?

I should note that my usual balance runs between 2k and 5k.

thanks!

Re: Charge card balance?

nachoslibres — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 21:23:24 GMT

Here's the thinking of having the highest FICO score - which probably doesn't make that much of a difference anyway.

You want one card to report a balance and all your other cards to report $0. You choose which card. You want the balance to be no more than say 9% of the total available credit on that card and you want the balance to be no less than 1% of your total CLs across all your cards.

Of course, if you can't hit that range (likely because you have a lot of CCs with credit limits around the same amount) you would rather be under the 1% than over the 9%.

Re: Charge card balance?

myjourney — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 21:29:37 GMT

Charge cards are looked upon differently than CC so your high balance in Fico eyes is seen as your limit

So lots of people with charge cards will run the balance as high as possible for that reason and in your case your normal is 2-3k a month so now it will look like a 10k card

Re: Charge card balance?

cabronsaim — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 22:47:32 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
Charge cards are looked upon differently than CC so your high balance in Fico eyes is seen as your limit
So lots of people with charge cards will run the balance as high as possible for that reason and in your case your normal is 2-3k a month so now it will look like a 10k card

Thanks for the answer!