Store Card Limit of $0?

[Anonymous]

I saw on my credit report that I have an open account with Raymour and Flannigan with a CL of $8000. It’s been there since 2015. In 2014 I missed a payment and they decreased my limit to $0 but left the account open. The old limit of $8k appears on Experian and Transunion but not my Equifax. Any reason this could be?

I called the credit card company and they said they can see if they can get my limit back but have to do a hard pull which I wasn’t interested in.

[Anonymous]

Why not just close the account if you have no use for it and unwilling to take an HP?

[K-in-Boston]

(Moved to General Credit Topics as this is more about how the card is reporting than the actual card.)

Are you certain that the account is actually still open with a $0 credit line, or is it just reporting as opened on your credit reports?  As for the limit being reported, that's just going to be a reflection of what the lender last provided to the credit bureaus.

[FinStar]

Right ^^^^

Or, if it's not hurting anything you can leave it as is and let the lender close it on its own for inactivity since you're not willing to take the HP for the CLI.

[K-in-Boston]

Also, if the account really is still open and you have no use for it I'd leave it as is.  Sounds like you have a bit of age on the card, $0/$0 isn't going to affect your numbers in any way, and for the bureaus that have it as $0/$8,000 that can only help with utilization.

[Anonymous]

I called the lender and it’s still open. There are no fees so I’m going to leave it as it will affect my AAoA

[Anonymous]

Yup. That’s why I’m going to keep it because it helps utilization ratio tremendously. Just seemed odd they haven’t updated it.

[Anonymous]

I don't think we can conclude that the card always has a zero balance on it.  That might be true but it might not be.  If our OP ever has a positive balance on the card that will hurt his score a ton, even if the balance is for $3.

We'd need to know more about the OP's report to advise him best.  For example, it's conceivable that this is a very old card (e.g. opened 20 years ago).  If so our OP should jump at the chance to get it reinstated as a card with a real credit limit.

On the other hand maybe he has several cards, finds it easy to keep his utilization low, and this card is fairly young.  Then it may be just as easy to close it.

It would also be interesting to know whether the late payment was ever reported as such to the three credit bureaus.

[Anonymous]

The late payment was reported for 30 days. The card has had a $0 limit for three years but the $8k limit remained. My utilization with it is 6%. Without it it’ll be around 12% give or take.

[Anonymous]

Is the balance on this card also at $0?

Regarding utilization, are you paying your other cards in full each month (whatever balance is on the statement) or are you carrying a balance (on which you pay interest)?