@Aim_High wrote:@Brian_Earl_Spilner I did the Balance Transfer shuffle with some large five-figure debts for many years until I could pay them off. Sometimes when I rolled balances over, I got individual utilization up to 90%or more. I knew that wasn't good for my credit score but I also knew I needed to do it to be able to stay ahead of the rapidly-accruing interest charges. You do what you have to do. I didn't see any AA from my lenders over that as long as I was paying on time. I got BT offers from Chase, Bank of America, Discover, Capital One, and FNBO, if I'm not mistaken. And like @K-in-Boston posted, I think it may have led to higher credit lines. After it was all paid down, my Chase, BofA, and Discover lines have grown to some of my highest.
I recently took out a huge 98% utilization BT with Navy FCU that I didn't really need when I opened my Platinum card. I got the card for emergency use due to the low APR and frequent BT offers I had heard about. Since there were no rewards and I wanted to break in the card, I ran it up with BT's from my other cards instead of with new purchases. High balance was $9800 on a $10K line. But it was 0% interest and no BT fees, so it was free money. Then I made large payments over about three months to pay it off and build payment history. Navy rewarded me with an $8K CLI at four months, so it may have helped. No other lenders flinched, my scores dropped substantially but then rebounded right back as I paid it down. I thought it was interesting so I've shared these depictions on a couple of BT threads before. (See graphics below.)
Credit score during and after the BT:
Posted card utilization by month:
That's great and all, but your scores were at 850, meaning you had a buffer there. There are points above 850, which you will never seen represented in numerical format, but buffer exists.
You also had no negatives.
Someone who's in 600s doesnt have a luxury of a buffer, scores already indicate there are problems either with negatives or huge utilization across the board, and getting a few cards closed might pose a serious problem, leading to cascade of AA.
Telling them everything is going to be okay is as much of truth as is telling them "All your cards are getting shut down, including the ones you do not even have"
People at different stages of *crediting* will have different experiences, but some are more vulnerable than others.
@Remedios wrote:
@Aim_High wrote:@Brian_Earl_Spilner I did the Balance Transfer shuffle with some large five-figure debts for many years until I could pay them off. Sometimes when I rolled balances over, I got individual utilization up to 90%or more. I knew that wasn't good for my credit score but I also knew I needed to do it to be able to stay ahead of the rapidly-accruing interest charges. You do what you have to do. I didn't see any AA from my lenders over that as long as I was paying on time. I got BT offers from Chase, Bank of America, Discover, Capital One, and FNBO, if I'm not mistaken. And like @K-in-Boston posted, I think it may have led to higher credit lines. After it was all paid down, my Chase, BofA, and Discover lines have grown to some of my highest.
I recently took out a huge 98% utilization BT with Navy FCU that I didn't really need when I opened my Platinum card. I got the card for emergency use due to the low APR and frequent BT offers I had heard about. Since there were no rewards and I wanted to break in the card, I ran it up with BT's from my other cards instead of with new purchases. High balance was $9800 on a $10K line. But it was 0% interest and no BT fees, so it was free money. Then I made large payments over about three months to pay it off and build payment history. Navy rewarded me with an $8K CLI at four months, so it may have helped. No other lenders flinched, my scores dropped substantially but then rebounded right back as I paid it down. I thought it was interesting so I've shared these depictions on a couple of BT threads before. (See graphics below.)
Credit score during and after the BT:
Posted card utilization by month:
That's great and all, but your scores were at 850, meaning you had a buffer there. There are points above 850, which you will never seen represented in numerical format, but buffer exists. You also had no negatives.
Someone who's in 600s doesnt have a luxury of a buffer, scores already indicate there are problems either with negatives or huge utilization across the board, and getting a few cards closed might pose a serious problem, leading to cascade of AA.
Telling them everything is going to be okay is as much of truth as is telling them "All your cards are getting shut down, including the ones you do not even have"
People at different stages of *crediting* will have different experiences, but some are more vulnerable than others.
That's true, and I didn't mean to imply everyone would have the exact same effect. Still, it's relative. And when I had high utilization before when I mentioned that five-figure debt earlier in my posting, my credit scores were much lower. I didn't check them often back then but they were in the mid-600's in the middle of my debt. And I experienced no AA from my high utilization. (My scores had been upper 700's before that period of debt and some late payments. Fortunately, that's now all in the distant past and I hope I never go back there again!)
The main point I make about the utilization diagrams I posted is that whether your score drops 30 points or 50 point or 80 points, it does come back quickly once you pay down the debt.
@M_Smart007 wrote:Just received more Penfed BT checks today, Chase Last week and HSBC the week before that.
From my perspective, they have not dried up. I guess profile driven ...YMMV
Agree 100%, especially w/Disco. I barely get one BT paid off, and like clockwork, there's another batch of checks in my mailbox 🤣