'high balance'

[Arcreactors]

So, I have perfect payment history on my cards but... I have been right up to the limit on most and the intrest charges have sometimes pushed me over the limit. So, on the report it shows for example 3600 high balance on a card with a limit of 3500. I am paying off these balances in hopes to obtaining a new credit card for a major purchase at 0% financing. I know the balance holds no memory and my score will be in the low to mid 700's when my balances are paid off but... The real question is how will this 'high balance' listed on my report A) affect my score or B) How will it be looked upon when applying for this new card? Thanks for the help.

[Anonymous]

The "high balance" field on a revolving account has no impact at all on your Fico scores.

How that high balance is viewed by lenders depends.  It can be bad, or it can be great. 

A high balance close to your limit is a bad thing if your balance is still high currently.  That has nothing to do with the high balance field though, but rather your utilization is in a bad place. 

A high balance close to your limit is a great thing if you've brought that account down to $0 (or something very low).  If you've got a $3500 card with a $3600 high balance attached to the account (which other lenders can see) and you currently have it paid down/off to say a hundred bucks, that's a great look assuming the account was never late / paid as agreed.  This shows other lenders that even if you run your balance up very high, you still pay it off without a problem.  That's a great thing and a good look when applying for a new card. 

There were times several years back where if it made sense I would intentially report a high "high balance" on my cards for this exact reason above.  Sometimes there would be a promo offer through Plastiq or something where I could throw 3 mortgage payments on a card, let that high balance report and then pay it off.  The cool thing about a high balance is that it stays on that account essentially forever, or until you exceed that balance again.  I've got fairly high "high balances" on most of my CCs due to intentially allowing them to report high at least once just to bump that field up for what I consider to be a better overall look coming from a Transactor profile.

[Arcreactors]

Thanks for the reply... Yes, I have absolutely no late payments. Im not even sure the automated apps for cards would look at the 'high balance' listed on there... but all of my actual balances will be 0 or near 0 and I will make sure they report that way before I apply for the new card nextt month. I know when I applied for an increase recently (soft pull) it said revolving balances were too high.. which they were at the time.