CapOne CLI and 0 Balance

[Anonymous]

First...thanks so much to all of you and the great advice provided on this forum!! I called the backdoor # of CapOne and received a CLI on both cards! Prior to this, about 2 weeks ago, I zeroed out the balances on both cards. About how much of a bump in my credit scor should I expect to see and in what time frame. I especially concerned with EQ as I'm looking to purchase a car in the next few months, and that's the agency that the credit union uses. Thanks in advance!!

[Anonymous]

No way to really tell what kind of bump you will see. What were your balances and limits on these cards when they last reported?  And...do you carry balances on any other cards?

[Anonymous]

Card 1 - limit was $500, increased to $1000; card#2 - limit was $800, increased to $1100; I have one other card (Orchard Bank) limit is $1500, and balance is $600, to be paid off by end of Sept.

[Anonymous]

Oh wait...I thought you were asking how much of an increase you would see from paying off both cards. Just getting a CLI in of itself will not boost your scores. It would help with your utilization if you were carrying balances, but if cards are reporting a zero balance, it won't make a difference.

[emanuelr1b]

I thought if you paid your card to zero balance, it would improve ones score since you're utilization 0 % of your credit but paying as agreed every month?  Do you really have to have a small balance for the score to jump as opposed to using the card every month and then paying off to show 0 on credit report?  Please provide more insight.

Thanks very much.

[dallasjetfan]

I recently paid off another card which had a balance of $1200. I received a 16 point FICO boost.

[Anonymous]

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emanuelr1b wrote:

I thought if you paid your card to zero balance, it would improve ones score since you're utilization 0 % of your credit but paying as agreed every month?  Do you really have to have a small balance for the score to jump as opposed to using the card every month and then paying off to show 0 on credit report?  Please provide more insight.

Thanks very much.

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Yes, paying off th card would help your fico, but when I asked what your CLs and Balances were  before, you replied with your old CL's and your new CLs...no mention of the previous balance on the card, so it seemed like OP was expecting to get a score bump from just from getting a CLI and that won't happen (though it could help your utilization if you carry a balance).

Now, if you had a card with a $1000 CL and carried a $500 balance on it, you'd be at 50% utilization. If payed it down to zero - yes, you'd likely see a score bump for bringing your util down to 0%, so long as you don't have other cards reporting high balances.

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 08-26-2008 04:43 PM

[Anonymous]

What was your utilization before paying off and after paying off with the CLIs?  I had a big jump over 100 on my scores when I paid off all of almost maxed out cards.

[Anonymous]

Both cards were maxed out before I zeroed them out as well.

[Anonymous]

Well then you might be very pleasantly surprised with the results!!!!