Any Citi CC issues from 100% util 1 cycle?

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@UpperNwGuy

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Yep, it happened to me.  About ten years ago I had a Citi AAdvantage card with a $40,000 credit limit.  I topped out my utilization at 99%.  They punished me by raising my APR from 13% to 20%.  I got the message.  I called them up and asked them to shut down the credit card.  Then I paid off the $40,000 I owed them over the next four years.

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I'm surprised that you chose to close the card, effectively putting it at maxed-out utilization for 4 years rather than just keep it open but cut it up / stop using it and pay down the balance while keeping your $40k CL as part of your utilization denominator.

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This all happened long before I knew what utilization was or how it could affect my credit score.  However, I just checked my old statements, and Citi, for some reason continued to report my credit limit as $40,000 until I had paid my account down to zero, so my utilization did not take a hit.  Once the account hit zero, it disappeared from my login.

[Anonymous]

I can understand not knowing.  Before I found this forum, I didn't know that closed revolving trade lines with balances were scored as being maxed out.

The question regarding your account wasn't the limit that Citi was reporting, it was whether or not they were reporting the account as open or closed.  If it was closed, it was being scored by the FICO algorithm as at 100% maxed out utilization, regardless of the limit it states the account had.

[NRB525]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@UpperNwGuy

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Yep, it happened to me.  About ten years ago I had a Citi AAdvantage card with a $40,000 credit limit.  I topped out my utilization at 99%.  They punished me by raising my APR from 13% to 20%.  I got the message.  I called them up and asked them to shut down the credit card.  Then I paid off the $40,000 I owed them over the next four years.

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I'm surprised that you chose to close the card, effectively putting it at maxed-out utilization for 4 years rather than just keep it open but cut it up / stop using it and pay down the balance while keeping your $40k CL as part of your utilization denominator.

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This all happened long before I knew what utilization was or how it could affect my credit score.  However, I just checked my old statements, and Citi, for some reason continued to report my credit limit as $40,000 until I had paid my account down to zero, so my utilization did not take a hit.  Once the account hit zero, it disappeared from my login.

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I went through this with a Citi card with a permanent 7.99% rate on the card purchases. They did a rate jack, which is a change in terms, and your only options are to accept the new terms (and over 20% APR or higher) or close the card to freeze the original terms. I chose to close the card to keep the original terms, credit limit of $20k. Paid down the balance over the course of several years, but the limit still reported as $20k and did not seem to affect my overall utiliztion, which was pretty high anyway.

Given the choices, I would close the card again to freeze the terms, and save the cash interest cost over the payment time period, such as it is. FICO can go pound sand when it comes to a choice to save interest cost.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

IMHO let your credit work for you, don't work for it.  I just ran up my new Citi DC to 75% with a tax payment. If they want to take AA then good for them, I'll glady drop Citi and never give them my business.

I agree with Greg that running up the balance and paying in full couldn't hurt getting a credit limit increase, and I sure need it because Citi gave me a ridiculously low starting limit.

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I agree. That's what the limit is for, to use it. I use them, and if they AA me, tough luck for them. I would immediately pay it off and close the card. There is PLENTY of card companies waiting for my business. I could care less if any one of my creditors AA me because I am using the credit line they gave me. Providing I pay them and pay them on time and keep my profiles clean. PERIOD.

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

That is what the credit is there for is to use it..  As long as they get paid they should be happy.  See no issues here at all.

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That may make sense to YOU, but it doesn't always make sense to the bank.  See my post above.

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Who cares if it doesn't make sense to the bank. They shouldn't issue credit lines they don't want people to use. And I'm glad you shut your account down. Serves them right.

[Anonymous]

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That is what the credit is there for is to use it..  As long as they get paid they should be happy.  See no issues here at all.

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I'm in this position right now, heavy utilization due to a major home-renovation project (promotional rates).

So far, so good; but FICO scores are taking a bit of a beating - that said, I continue to get mailers and CLIs.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@AnonymousWell, you PIF so running it that high before statement close doesnt matter.

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It could.  If you barely use the card one cycle and then use it extremely heavily the next, you could PIF and still report near maxed-out utilization Not if you pay all the balance on due date.  Your PIF would be based on a very low previous statement balance, say a few hundred bucks, then if you make $9k+ in purchases on a $10k limit card (for example) and just PIF the few hundred bucks statement balance, you'll end up reporting > 90% maxed out utilization. Well yes, that makes sense.

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I thought you said you pay it in full BEFORE the stement closes.  If this was the case, and you PIF on due date, no balance will report, EVEN if you spend $10k on a $9k card.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
 They shouldn't issue credit lines they don't want people to use.  

This is how I see it. There shouldn't be any harm in utilizing the CL available, as long as it's paid by the due date. Or within a time frame that doesn't affect your CS. I can understand only carring $3K balance on a $10K card, for utilization reasons. But if a person is to PIF every statement, I truly don't see the issue in using 50-70% of it. Now if a person had over 40% utilization across several cards statement after statement, then I could see Banks getting nervous. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous

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I thought you said you pay it in full BEFORE the stement closes.  If this was the case, and you PIF on due date, no balance will report, EVEN if you spend $10k on a $9k card.

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No, I said if you PIF your statement balance.  There are many times I PIF before the statement closes my entire current balance, but that's not what I'm talking about with this example.