Credit Card available credit amount after payment - reporting to CRA

[wife2froggy]

Hi

Just paid off all my cards. Woohoo! Some, like Capital One and Discover, gave me my full available credit immediately. Others are holding the money forever, but are going to be reporting $0 on my statement. 

The question is, if I have an available line of $2500 and a $0 balance (but they're holding $1500) will they show my available credit as $2500 or $1000?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

That may depend on which bank you are talking about and your history with them. Some may hold funds until they clear your bank, until you have some history with them and they see you’re good for the money, and then free it up. Amex used to reflect an updated balance for me after a day when I was new with them, but now they release the credit line instantly.

[wife2froggy]

Hi Thank you -

My question isn't so much about the held funds. I don't care about that (even though the funds cleared my bank a week ago. I know it's their game)

It was more about how it will affect the "available balance" or debt to credit ratio when they report.

[thornback]

Your credit limit will reflect as $2500.   Your balance will be $0.   And your utilization will be 0%.    

[CreditInspired]

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@thornback wrote:

Your credit limit will reflect as $2500.   Your balance will be $0.   And your utilization will be 0%.    

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And FYI, if your UT is 0 across the board, you will lose some points on your scores. Always let one card report between $5-20. 

Also congrats on paying off debt!

[wife2froggy]

Thank you! I have a couple of small auto-pays on my Discover so I can get the rewards

[Anonymous]

It depends on the bank and the amount. It could take up to 2 weeks, since a stop payment could happen on your part, which I'm sure you don't want to do. Once 2 weeks pass, the payment is permanent and available credit is restored. Good chance its before 2 weeks.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It depends on the bank and the amount. It could take up to 2 weeks, since a stop payment could happen on your part, which I'm sure you don't want to do. Once 2 weeks pass, the payment is permanent and available credit is restored. Good chance its before 2 weeks.

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At the risk of taking the thread off-topic, unless there's been a change I'm not aware of (which is certainly possible) there's no rule that makes ACH-pull transfers permanent after two weeks.  I can even share that I've personally reversed pull transactions well past that point.

While I've not had to deal with a payment hold in a while, I know they can be annoying.  In my own experience the length of the hold was usually somewhat arbitrary based on the bank's perceived risk, with larger payments having longer hold times. 

The longest hold I ever had was 10 business days, and was with HSBC/Orchard Bank.  After that, I pushed my payments using my bank's billpay and I never had the issue again.  Even back when my only cards were sub-prime I never had a hold when I paid via 'ACH-push' using my bank's billpay.

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

It depends on the bank and the amount. It could take up to 2 weeks, since a stop payment could happen on your part, which I'm sure you don't want to do. Once 2 weeks pass, the payment is permanent and available credit is restored. Good chance its before 2 weeks.

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At the risk of taking the thread off-topic, unless there's been a change I'm not aware of (which is certainly possible) there's no rule that makes ACH-pull transfers permanent after two weeks.  I can even share that I've personally reversed pull transactions well past that point.

While I've not had to deal with a payment hold in a while, I know they can be annoying.  In my own experience the length of the hold was usually somewhat arbitrary based on the bank's perceived risk, with larger payments having longer hold times. 

The longest hold I ever had was 10 business days, and was with HSBC/Orchard Bank.  After that, I pushed my payments using my bank's billpay and I never had the issue again.  Even back when my only cards were sub-prime I never had a hold when I paid via 'ACH-push' using my bank's billpay.

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The banks I've dealt with can take up to 2 weeks to finalize. I've had a payment fail 2 weeks after payment. It probably can vary with different banks.

When I checked my payment to Wells Fargo Propel, it took 2 weeks to restore available credit. I've never seen it take longer than that. Smaller payments took less.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the payoff, it's nice feeling not having any CC balances!

For me, the only Bank that restores available credit lines immediately upon payment, is Citibank.

All others seem to take around 2-3 days. 

What I think is odd, is when i pay my Chase CC from my linked Chase checking account. It stays pending for a 1-2 days. I mean seriously, you see how much is in there, I'm good for it. lol