Confusing High Limit and Credit limit columns in Equifax credit report

[kilobite]

Just pulled my credit report and noticed odd figures for high credit and credit limit columns for one of the CC's in the equifax report.  My vintage scores avarages about 830 and never carried more than $1000 on any of the 4 cards (and that's even just  two or three times).  I always pay the balances in full every month. 

For the BOA card,  the report stats $7500 in the High Credit column and $5000 in the Credit Limit column from 8/21 to 9/22.  The Balance column shows $0 for all the rows except a couple of rows with $60.  I've never charged any more than $500 since I got it but where did the $7500 come from?  I'm confused about these figures.  The report seems to suggest I overcharged and went above my credit limit while I never even utilized more the 10% of the availabe credit.  It makes me look bad.  In fact I haven't used this card for a very long time.

So can someone shed some light on this High Credit and Credit limit thing?  Does HC mean sum of all the balances I ever had on this card or the balance I had at one point in time?  Thanks
   

[JoeRockhead]

The high credit amount can be the highest amount you've had on the card during a month, or the highest amount you've ever had on the card at one time... different issuers have different policies and parameters they go by.

Credit limit is the account's set limit. What you can charge up to before having to pay it down in order to charge more.

For example if you have a card with a $5k limit but say you charged $4k, then paid the balance down to 0 a week later, but then go and charge another $3500 within the same billing period it would show that your high credit amount was $7500 for that billing period.

[SouthJamaica]

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@kilobite wrote:

Just pulled my credit report and noticed odd figures for high credit and credit limit columns for one of the CC's in the equifax report.  My vintage scores avarages about 830 and never carried more than $1000 on any of the 4 cards (and that's even just  two or three times).  I always pay the balances in full every month. 

For the BOA card,  the report stats $7500 in the High Credit column and $5000 in the Credit Limit column from 8/21 to 9/22.  The Balance column shows $0 for all the rows except a couple of rows with $60.  I've never charged any more than $500 since I got it but where did the $7500 come from?  I'm confused about these figures.  The report seems to suggest I overcharged and went above my credit limit while I never even utilized more the 10% of the availabe credit.  It makes me look bad.  In fact I haven't used this card for a very long time.

So can someone shed some light on this High Credit and Credit limit thing?  Does HC mean sum of all the balances I ever had on this card or the balance I had at one point in time?  Thanks
   

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As far as I know the high credit is the highest balance you've ever had on the card at any one point in time.

[GZG]

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@kilobite wrote:

So can someone shed some light on this High Credit and Credit limit thing?  Does HC mean sum of all the balances I ever had on this card or the balance I had at one point in time?  Thanks
   

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so high credit is the highest balance that has ever been on the card.

this balance isn't a balance that needs to be reported as a statement balance, just at any time, what has the absoulute highest balance the card has been even within billing cycles. 

it appears that future months just post whatever the highest amount you've ever had on the card is from prior months for high credit. So because in Oct 2022, my card had a $690 balance, it just repeated that information for subsequent months.

credit limit is just what the credit limit for the card was during that month, so my nRewards started out at $1k, got a $400 auto CLI, graduated to $2k, got a 3x CLI to $6k, which is where it's at now

and yeah, here is the reported balances, so "high credit" amounts don't need to be statement balances: 

it's a good thing, IMO 

it's a data point that says that you used your card for a high amount at some point and paid it off in the same month or very soon after that

the less cutthroat FI's will even provide 'actual payment' information, which shows how much has been paid off on the card during a given cycle 

so in Sept 2022, I paid $1372 to the card, in Oct 2022, I paid $1266 to the card, etc. 

[hdporter]

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@kilobite wrote:

For the BOA card,  the report stats $7500 in the High Credit column and $5000 in the Credit Limit column from 8/21 to 9/22.  The Balance column shows $0 for all the rows except a couple of rows with $60.  I've never charged any more than $500 since I got it but where did the $7500 come from?  I'm confused about these figures.  The report seems to suggest I overcharged and went above my credit limit while I never even utilized more the 10% of the availabe credit.  It makes me look bad.
   

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The most important takeaway is that reported "High Credit" has no impact on your credit scores.  Nor do other issuers pay any appreciabl attention to this field.  It doesn't make you "look bad".

[Zoostation1]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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As far as I know the high credit is the highest balance you've ever had on the card at any one point in time.

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"High credit" varies from lender to lender in what data they report and for some it is what you mentioned. Looked at my reports a couple days ago and Capital One reports the highest posted balance you've had on the card at any time.  Discover and Amex report the highest statement balance.  I can't speak for other lenders because I only have cards from those 3 lenders and don't remember how Citi reported way back when I had them pre BK.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@kilobite wrote:

Just pulled my credit report and noticed odd figures for high credit and credit limit columns for one of the CC's in the equifax report.  My vintage scores avarages about 830 and never carried more than $1000 on any of the 4 cards (and that's even just  two or three times).  I always pay the balances in full every month. 

For the BOA card,  the report stats $7500 in the High Credit column and $5000 in the Credit Limit column from 8/21 to 9/22.  The Balance column shows $0 for all the rows except a couple of rows with $60.  I've never charged any more than $500 since I got it but where did the $7500 come from?  I'm confused about these figures.  The report seems to suggest I overcharged and went above my credit limit while I never even utilized more the 10% of the availabe credit.  It makes me look bad.  In fact I haven't used this card for a very long time.

So can someone shed some light on this High Credit and Credit limit thing?  Does HC mean sum of all the balances I ever had on this card or the balance I had at one point in time?  Thanks
   

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The term usually used on credit reports is High Balance. Depending on the bank it either represents the highest statement balance up to that point in time or ... The highest balance accumulated on the card up to that point in time.

It is rare for high balance to exceed credit limit because many cards don't allow charges to exceed the CL. That situation is most often seen on cards that have undergone a credit line reduction (CLD). An old time poster, NRB525, had many of his cards undergo CLDs at one time which pushed some HBs above adjusted CLs.