topic Re: Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

HomeBuyerSpring2021 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:40:58 GMT

I’m trying to keep total utilization to 9.5% (best I can do right now with cashflow) in preparation to request CLIs from 5 major credit cards in May (waiting for new credit scores that jumped 30+ points to sit on credit card issuers for 30 days before requesting). I just got CL bumps on 2 store cards from Synchrony (Amazon & Athleta), so I'm using those higher CLs in my % calculation. However, they both currently have $0 balances & I've noticed in past that Synchrony cards don't produce a statement on months I have a $0 balance. So do store cards with $0 balance get reported to credit bureaus (& therefore credit bureaus will use my higher CL in their utiliz. calculations)?

Thanks,

Kimberly

Re: Do Score Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

SouthJamaica — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:45:31 GMT

@HomeBuyerSpring2021 wrote:
I’m trying to keep total utilization to 9.5% (best I can do right now with cashflow) in preparation to request CLIs from 5 major credit cards in May (waiting for new credit scores that jumped 30+ points to sit on credit card issuers for 30 days before requesting). I just got CL bumps on 2 store cards from Synchrony (Amazon & Athleta), so I'm using those higher CLs in my % calculation. However, they both currently have $0 balances & I've noticed in past that Synchrony cards don't produce a statement on months I have a $0 balance. So do store cards with $0 balance get reported to credit bureaus (& therefore credit bureaus will use my higher CL in their utiliz. calculations)?

Thanks,

Kimberly

Yes, store cards with zero balance do get reported and will be factored into your revolving utilization.

Re: Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

HomeBuyerSpring2021 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:42:07 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
Yes, store cards with zero balance do get reported and will be factored into your revolving utilization.

And for anyone reading this later, I also just read in another post that 8.9% is a more favorable overall utilization to target (versus the 9.5% I mentioned in the original post).

Kimberly

Re: Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 20:49:53 GMT

That's correct. If you're shooting for 8.9% to report, pay to 8.5-8.6% so that after interest is added, you remain under the 8.9% breakpoint.

Re: Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

HomeBuyerSpring2021 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 20:59:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That's correct. If you're shooting for 8.9% to report, pay to 8.5-8.6% so that after interest is added, you remain under the 8.9% breakpoint.

As Homer Simpson would say, "Doh!" I only have one card that will be charging interest, but darn if I didn't even *think* about that in my calculations. Perfect example of "you don't know what you don't know." I would have been kicking myself if I'd done so much ideal planning & still messed it up. Thanks so much for pointing that out!

Kimberly

Re: Do Store Cards with $0 Balance Report CL Monthly?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 21:10:35 GMT

You're welcome. And none of us likely realized it until it bit us or we read that from someone else. Still, it's a mild lesson that can be corrected the next month (or sooner by requesting an off-cycle report with an amenable lender like Discover). But yeah it would be disappointing not to see an expected gain after putting in the work to get to that point.