Chase CLD on all cards

[Anonymous]

OP, just curious, with your substantial income why have you chosen to carry balances on your cards and why are you only paying $1500/mo toward your $40k in debt?

I know someone that only has about $25k in income that's had 9 credit cards maxed out for nearly a year now.  2 of those cards are through Chase and have actually had > 100% utilization on them due to interest being added on to the balance.  This person has yet to receive any AA on any of those 9 accounts which are spread across 6 different creditors.

[Anonymous]

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@negg wrote:

"Granted, I owe Chase about 20k. Total credit card debt (across all banks) is 40k, which I know seems high, but income also high". 

   Right here is the issue. 40K in credit card debt is high not seems high. Chase soft pulled you and saw this and the computer bells and whistle went crazy.  Can't blame them. 

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I don't know how banks work, but this shouldn't be an issue. A 16% DTI is not much. I reguarly have way more than this post on my statements. It doesn't get carried over month to month as I pay in full, but if a bank soft pulled me at any given point, I'd be double this some months. 40K shouldn't be high if income is high. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@negg wrote:

"Granted, I owe Chase about 20k. Total credit card debt (across all banks) is 40k, which I know seems high, but income also high". 

   Right here is the issue. 40K in credit card debt is high not seems high. Chase soft pulled you and saw this and the computer bells and whistle went crazy.  Can't blame them. 

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I don't know how banks work, but this shouldn't be an issue. A 16% DTI is not much. I reguarly have way more than this post on my statements. It doesn't get carried over month to month as I pay in full, but if a bank soft pulled me at any given point, I'd be double this some months. 40K shouldn't be high if income is high. 

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A soft pull only shows items that have posted, so fundamentally your situation is quite different.  

[yfan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't know how banks work, but this shouldn't be an issue. A 16% DTI is not much. I reguarly have way more than this post on my statements. It doesn't get carried over month to month as I pay in full, but if a bank soft pulled me at any given point, I'd be double this some months. 40K shouldn't be high if income is high. 

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That's one angle. Another is, why is someone with such high income carrying $40,000 in credit card debt? Under normal circumstances, someone making a quarter million dollars a year shouldn't have any trouble paying off their credit cards. Behavior contrary to that can certainly raise doubts. OP explains it by saying they had to buy stuff for the home they bought last year. I also bought a home last year, and my income is much, much lower than OP's, but I didn't end up carrying balances on any credit cards at all.

OP's credit limits also seemed fairly low for someone of their income level.

My impression here is that there is more to this story than we are getting. Remember that Chase has more data than just balances and limits. They have data on OP's actual use of the cards and spend patterns.

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@negg wrote:

"Granted, I owe Chase about 20k. Total credit card debt (across all banks) is 40k, which I know seems high, but income also high". 

   Right here is the issue. 40K in credit card debt is high not seems high. Chase soft pulled you and saw this and the computer bells and whistle went crazy.  Can't blame them. 

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I don't know how banks work, but this shouldn't be an issue. A 16% DTI is not much. I reguarly have way more than this post on my statements. It doesn't get carried over month to month as I pay in full, but if a bank soft pulled me at any given point, I'd be double this some months. 40K shouldn't be high if income is high. 

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A soft pull only shows items that have posted, so fundamentally your situation is quite different.  

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Negg, $40k is completely relative.  I've had more than that in new charges in a month.  Someone with $30k in income carrying $40k in debt on $45k of credit lines?  Sure, that's cause for concern.  In this case, you could certainly "blame them" as there's not really any cause for alarm from the info we have.

MWC, your comment lost me.  A soft pull is going to give a lender the same information as a hard pull when it comes to utilization and what's reported at any given point for balances on a person's credit reports.  Not sure how that's a different situation.

[red259]

With income that high and no lates/ derogs why is the credit score soo low? Why would someone carry 40k balances vs just paying the cards off on time??? I'd be wary if I was Chase as well. 

[K-in-Boston]

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@yfan wrote:

why is someone with such high income carrying $40,000 in credit card debt? Under normal circumstances, someone making a quarter million dollars a year shouldn't have any trouble paying off their credit cards.

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I hate to keep using the word, but it's relative.  I'll be happy to get down to $40k about 2 years from now and I'm just under that for income.  Cost of living can differ drastically from region to region, and that doesn't just mean housing.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply-

I know there are lots of things in my credit profile that could throw up red flags.  What confuses me is that there are far less now then there have been over the past 2-3 years.

I think I'm going to close Chase out of principal - or atleast all the cards that have an annual fee, which is most of them. If 40k is too high of credit card debt, then what's the point on having all that open credit?   I have cards with Citi, Amex, Wells Fargo, and BoA with more than enough credit avaailable for my needs.   At a minimum, Im going to pull all of my money out of Chase, and give it to another bank.  I have enough cash in a Wells Fargo acount to just pay off all Chase cards and be done with them.  I haven't only because I prefer to have a large liquid cashflow.  My financial profile is a little unorthodox.  Single guy, high income, tends to go through periods of intense spending, balanced by periods of intesnse saving / paying off.

Amswers:

• Any cash advances on Chase or any credit card?  Never in my life.
• Any major gift card purchases repeatedly on a credit card (not just Chase)?  Nope, I use cash.  I hate people who give gift cards
• Any utilization over 89% on any credit card post to a statement?  Possibly, but that's nothing new for me, and nothing new in the past 6 months.  There were times 2 or 3 years ago when i had 7 or 8 cards maxed out and Chase didn't blink.
• Any "late" payment that wasn't a 30D late but was after the due date (not reported to CRAs)?  Recently Dell Financial screwed up my autopay, but it was never reported.  I called and got credited for the late fee, and an apology.  How could Chase possibly find out about that?
• Did you recently use Plastiq or Venmo or Paypal to send a large payment to yourself or family or to pay a loan due?  I only use paypal to purchase from retailers.  Probably $2,000 a month on average.  I don't use it to send cash as 'friends and family'

[red259]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

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@yfan wrote:

why is someone with such high income carrying $40,000 in credit card debt? Under normal circumstances, someone making a quarter million dollars a year shouldn't have any trouble paying off their credit cards.

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I hate to keep using the word, but it's relative.  I'll be happy to get down to $40k about 2 years from now and I'm just under that for income.  Cost of living can differ drastically from region to region, and that doesn't just mean housing.

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40K is a lot of credit debt for someone with credit scores on the lower range. I live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, so the concept of it being relative really doesn't fly. Why would someone be paying interest on all that money if they could just pay it off? I could understand maybe if it was a 0%APR offer they were carrying but if they are paying interest to carry these balances then I would have real questions if I were the bank. Maybe I am misunderstanding and they are only carrying on 0% apr cards in which case I'd speak to the bank. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat -- single guy, retired but high income, have periods of insanely high spending (2-3 months of the year probably account for 90% of my annual spend).  So far I'm in FICO hell so not much AA anyone can take, but I do like Chase and have banked with them for over 25 years.  Sucky to read these stories because I would really like to get the CSR to help with international travel awards...

If you have a competitor card that gives you the same rewards/cashback, definitely go nuclear on the same card from Chase.  No purpose giving them your business.

But if it means you'll earn fewer rewards, I wouldn't cut off my nose to spite my face.  I expect banks to pay me now, and pay me well, and I'm going to maximize that for my own greedy selfish purposes.