Holiday Balances

[Anonymous]

Marty and Upper, I'm with both of you on this and so far I'm OK too. I charge a couple grand a month and pay in full. So far so good.

[Anonymous]

The thing to watch for is your percentage of credit used of any particular card.  Even though you PIF, you still don't want to use 90% of your credit on any card.

Secondly, the above applies even if you pay everthing that you charged THIS month.  So if your statement says that you owe $100 and you charge $900 more on a $1000 credit limit, your CR will say that you charged $1000 even though you pay in full every month.

[algorithmslave]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The thing to watch for is your percentage of credit used of any particular card.  Even though you PIF, you still don't want to use 90% of your credit on any card.

Secondly, the above applies even if you pay everthing that you charged THIS month.  So if your statement says that you owe $100 and you charge $900 more on a $1000 credit limit, your CR will say that you charged $1000 even though you pay in full every month.

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Best advice I have seen....right now, the rules for calculating the scores keeps this in mind..... If you decide to carry a balance, I would carry no more than 7 percent of a balance to debt/ratio if you have had the card PIF before hand and reported that way. Let me make this clear, unless there is a "big fat conspiracy", this is not a bank rule rather a FICO rule. They make the rules, not me.

On another note, I have often wondered if part of the negative perception of carring a balance on the part of FICO has to do with not using the card with a balance being carried. For example, if someone charges something 100 dollars on a 300 dollar debt ceiling for the holidays but does not pay off the complete balance and stops charging on the card, I wonder if this is the negative perception? I hope I explained that well....

[Anonymous]

Great cautions to have.

[EaglesFan2006]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The thing to watch for is your percentage of credit used of any particular card.  Even though you PIF, you still don't want to use 90% of your credit on any card.

Secondly, the above applies even if you pay everthing that you charged THIS month.  So if your statement says that you owe $100 and you charge $900 more on a $1000 credit limit, your CR will say that you charged $1000 even though you pay in full every month.

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How accurate is this?  I mean at times I've used my card more than 90%, but I pay multiple times a month...and the CC only reports once a month, usually on the statement date, so isn't it based on the balance that you have at that time?

In any case, i'm pretty nervous about this whole thing after reading these posts, even though the bulk of them were written during the worst of the financial crisis.  I use my cards regularly, but make large payments each month (though not PIF).  I guess all I can do is hope for the best.

[Jutz]

I think reporting 90% is a lot different than using 90%. 

[EaglesFan2006]

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@Jutz wrote:

I think reporting 90% is a lot different than using 90%. 

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I agree, so I'm wondering what guidelines the CCs use.  Frankly, I can't see why they'd cut your limit if you use the card regularly and make sizeable payments. 

[Razeus]

Wow, this thread was from 2009.  I was going to say, I haven't heard of lines getting cut in years....