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A few of my non-store credit cards are maxed out. I am going to be paying a large chunk of them down, in an effort to raise my score and get ready to refinance my mortgage. I am afraid that they are going to balance chase me. So far, care credit lowered my limit about $6k, but I wasn't using it anyways. I will be paying down Discover and Capital One. Is there a payment strategy to help me not have my limits lowered ? Make several smaller payments? Make one big payment? Big payment on one, let it report and then pay the others down? Am I just screwed no matter what I do?
Just pay them off and don't worry about the balance chasing. Showing you can knock them out makes it easy to recover a CL by calling to get it restored.
The biggest boost in scores will come from $0 balances on all but 1 and the 1 you leave a balance on should be less than 8.9% of the CL and should be a major bank issued card.
Care only dropped yours due to lack of use
my discount tire (sync as well) dropped mine due to lack of use. I called them and got most of it back right away. Then I started using it for gas, and now it is higher than it ever was
call and ask for Care to raise it back up. Then start using it at Walgreens once a month.
You can also do 8.9% across the board i noticed that had the biggest jump for me instead of AZEO because some like seeing a balance of some sort.
Sorry to clarify I mean if you had 3 cards have one at 1% one at 2% and one at like 5% to equal up to 8.9 across all not all being 8.9 each....no no LOL
@Anonymous
Hey there!
I know exactly what you are going through as I was in a similar situation not too long ago. Anecdotally, I have only ever been balance chased when making huge or out of the ordinary large payments. This happened with my Citi (aadvantage) and Amazon Store card at some point early-mid 2018.
I was fortunate enough to somehow stop the bleeding after only the single CLD's with those cards. Amazon bounce backed fully and more than tripled the SL and Citi approved me for another card and never messed with my AAdvantage again (it is still at the reduced limit tho).
Again the goal is to pay down to avoid AA, but my thought is that a very large payment may get someone to look directly at your account, or maybe trigger an automated review in the system.
My balance chase nightmare was short lived and isolated, but it was terrible. The way I survived was to make significant but not uncharecteristic payments to lower the balance over time. I did this because I loved these particular cards and wanted to avoid closure. I tried to maybe cross a UTI threshold each few months (But immediately get out of "maxed" zone if possible).
I am still scared to this day (over a year later) to make large payments on my Citi AAdvantage or ask for an increase. I am sure I am out of the danger zone by now but still...
Also... If you do not care if they close these cards just pay them off. I did carem so I took this strategy that worked for me.
I wouldn't be worried about balance chasing honestly. If it happens, it happens, but if you're already maxed out from a scoring perspective, you won't have any additional point loss and the shedding of unsecured debt will just help your mortgage app anyway.
I just saw that the cards in question are Discover and CapOne. Historically I do not think they are known for balance chasing.
I currently have 16 cards. One at $0, a few under $1k and the highest is at $10k. It looks like I can easily get all of them under 68.9%, and then I will pay some of the smaller down to $0. There are a few that I might close out completely, but may just keep around and SD them to help optimize my utilization. I have $12k available to me, and paying down to 68.9% will take just over $7k. I want to keep about $2k in my savings for just in case, so I have a little extra to play with to lower some other cards or may just take care of some stuff around my house. I just want to get them all out of the danger zone and lower/eliminate some monthly payments.
@Anonymous wrote:I just saw that the cards in question are Discover and CapOne. Historically I do not think they are known for balance chasing.
Good to know! Discover is by far my biggest card and I don't want to lose the limit!