did I make a mistake

[Anonymous]

I HAD 2 CHASE CREDIT CARDS WIH 5000 AND 5500.I OWED 2900 ON ONE AND 3400 ON ANOTHER ONE ALSO i HAD 6 CREDIT CARDS WITH ABOUT 80 % USUEGE.CHASE LOWERED BOTH CARDS TO 350.00 DOLLARS ABOVE MY BALANCE DUE .THE SAME DAY MY FICO DROPPED 50 PTS FROM 690 TO 650.THEY SAID MY CREDIT USEGE WAS 2 HIGH.SO I PAID 2000 DOLLARS ON MY 2 CHASE CARS AND 2000 ON MY CAPITOL ONE.THINKING THIS WOULD LOWER MY BALANCES ON ALL 3 TO TO ABOUT 30 %.....A WEEK LATER THEY LOWERED MY CREDIT AVAILABLE AGAIN TO 350 ABOVE BALANCES DESTROYING WHAT I TRIED TO DO DO. THEY DID THE SAME TO MY WIFE [CHASE]WHEN SHE PAID HERS DOWN ,,THEY THEN CLOSED HER ACCOUNTS. I KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO DO THE SAME TO ME.SO I CLOSED THEM MYSELF KNOWING IT MUST LOOK BETTER IF I DID THEN THEM.DID I DO RIGHT. I TRIED TO DO THE RIGHT THING BY PAYING 2000 ON THE 3 MOST IMPORTANT ONES AND GOT SCREWED FOR IT.DID I DO THE RIGHT THINGS.?

[MarineVietVet]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You did nothing wrong. What happened to you has happened to many, many other people. It's called "balance chasing".

It doesn't make any difference whether you close an account yourself or a credit card company closes it.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[RobertEG]

Yeah, I agree, you did nothing basically wrong from a FICO scoring vewpoint.  I think holding high % utils now was a risky thing at the wrong time.

Many CCCs are looking to slash CLS.  Some focus on their current high % util accounts.  Then they look at your overall % util, and util on other cards.

If one looks at only FICO scoring aspects from month to month, then one knows that current % util has no historical memory, and that recovery in the next month by making high paydowns can substantially reduce % util, and thus reduce your immediate credit score.  So your strategy and assumptions were correct.

But this overlooks the current credit climate.  The CCCs are looking at prior history as a guideline for possible credit limit decreases.

You just got caught in a time of slashing by the CCCs