practical value of a huge credit limit?

[vanillabean]

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@rlx01 wrote:
The figure is somewhere around 50k.

The individual card utilization is ignored but it still factors into the *total* utilization.

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Would you by any chance have the source for this?

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

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@rlx01 wrote:
The figure is somewhere around 50k.

The individual card utilization is ignored but it still factors into the *total* utilization.

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Would you by any chance have the source for this?

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Hrm, we need a sticky thread somewhere to start linking data sources from... the search interface blows and we need to really get it consolidated.

cashnocredit I think posted some information about the 50k lines, he had some direct data and some I think from CB but I don't recall the sources.   It'd been alleged that big honking revolving tradelines got discounted, but I don't know if it's quite that simplistic in FICO's analysis as people were thinking it was caught up in the HELOC change, but it's pretty clear my 27K HELOC doesn't count as revolving for me on FICO 04 or FICO 8, but I see a reason code for revolving balances on EX FICO 2 (FICO 98) and that's probably the HELOC not being ignored there, but it does report differently than a standard credit card too.

If I someday manage to get the CSR, I will stack it to something like 60k and then try to test some things but at least for my usual spend habits it'd be hard; I guess I could try to stack a big set of tax bills one year and pay it all with the CSR (silly I know compared to just dropping it on the FU) but it'd be challenging to get above the apparent 10% aggregate line with the card and individual utilization yeah right on my data anyway.

[iced]

I have been checking my free scores coming in over the last few weeks, and while I have seen a few interesting things, I don't know if what I'm seeing is enough to state how limits affect things either way. Observations:

1. The negative reason codes on one of the score sites changed. I usually have "serious delinquincy" and "number of accounts with delinquincy", but on this report the number of accounts vanished and was replaced with "too few accounts paid on time." I don't know if this is the message you were looking for. The serious delinquincy tends to drown out any other negative messages, though. To be honest, I'm starting to think the baddies on my CR drown out testing like this as well.

2. My FICO scores barely budged. Score changes were less than 5 points, and some even went up. This may also have had something to do with my overall utilization dropping from 3% to 1%. FICO scores are in the 746-759 range (lowest is TU at 746, EX at 759, with my DCU score (FICO5 I think) at 736.

2. My EQ Vantage score barely moved but my TU Vantage score tanked (-70 points). I was not expecting that. They don't provide specific reasons but both are from CK. TU is 751 and EQ is 804.

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

I have been checking my free scores coming in over the last few weeks, and while I have seen a few interesting things, I don't know if what I'm seeing is enough to state how limits affect things either way. Observations:

1. The negative reason codes on one of the score sites changed. I usually have "serious delinquincy" and "number of accounts with delinquincy", but on this report the number of accounts vanished and was replaced with "too few accounts paid on time." I don't know if this is the message you were looking for. The serious delinquincy tends to drown out any other negative messages, though. To be honest, I'm starting to think the baddies on my CR drown out testing like this as well.

2. My FICO scores barely budged. Score changes were less than 5 points, and some even went up. This may also have had something to do with my overall utilization dropping from 3% to 1%. FICO scores are in the 746-759 range (lowest is TU at 746, EX at 759, with my DCU score (FICO5 I think) at 736.

2. My EQ Vantage score barely moved but my TU Vantage score tanked (-70 points). I was not expecting that. They don't provide specific reasons but both are from CK. TU is 751 and EQ is 804.

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Hello Iced.  It's been about 50 messages and 5 weeks since you last indicated what your test scenario was going to be, so it probably makes sense to remind people what that was.  Otherwise reporting your results won't mean anything.

If memory serves (and I may be mistaken):

     * You have exactly three cards, two are Chase cards with credit limits of 50k each.  The other is a smaller CL card (< 29k CL).

     * All three cards have been reporting a positive balance for the last three months.

TEST PLAN:

Your plan was to make your third smaller card report a $0 balance.  If FICO ignores 50k CL tradelines, then by zeroing out the third, we'd expect FICO to view you as having a 0% utilization.

Is all of the above correct?

Has your third card been reporting $0?  Have you pulled your credit reports to confirm this?  On what date(s) did each bureau update its database with the $0 balance?

Have you considered pulling your three FICO 8 scores with the $1 free trial at CCT?

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If memory serves (and I may be mistaken):

     * You have exactly three cards, two are Chase cards with credit limits of 50k each.  The other is a smaller CL card (< 29k CL).

     * All three cards have been reporting a positive balance for the last three months.

TEST PLAN:

Your plan was to make your third smaller card report a $0 balance.  If FICO ignores 50k CL tradelines, then by zeroing out the third, we'd expect FICO to view you as having a 0% utilization.

Is all of the above correct?

Has your third card been reporting $0?  Have you pulled your credit reports to confirm this?  On what date(s) did each bureau update its database with the $0 balance?

Have you considered pulling your three FICO 8 scores with the $1 free trial at CCT?

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One of the two large cards (CSR obtained in October) will report for the third time this month (January). The other one is longer than 3 months. All 3 reported a non-zero balance in November, and the smaller card reported $0 in December.

I pulled reports via CK and Experian to confirm it's reporting $0. I don't know how to tell when a bureau updated its records. The statement for the $0 card came in around the 19th and it showed $0 on reports I pulled between the 25th and the 1st.

I can pull all 3 scores but knowing I have an EX and TU score already (Citi and Barclays), there's not much to gain by pulling them again from another source is there?

Also, it's very easy for me to keep a $0 on the smaller card since it's only used 1-2 times a month anyway. I can report back later this month once the other large card has reported for 3 cycles if you think that matters.

[Anonymous]

When a person is obtaining his scores via credit cards, he has to also carefully note the date that each score was updated -- if (that is) he is trying to use these for testing purposes.  Typically it will say on the credit card portal next to the score.  (Something like "based on data drawn from Experian on November 27.")  These dates can vary a lot.  Just because Citi pulled your data on Nov 27 doesn't mean it will pull it again on Dec 27 or even close to it.

So as you have been recording each score, have you also recorded the date that the score was pulled by the CC company?

All this is why you heard me suggesting to many people many times that they just do a single "before" shot and then an "after" shot using the $1 CCT trial.  That's $2 total for two sets of scores accompanied by a 3B report each.  And each set is done at the same instant across all three bureaus.  It's a lot easier if someone is trying to test something.

[iced]

Yes, I made sure any score pulled had a date that was at least a few days after the January statement cut.

If I leave the small card at $0 for the next month this should also eliminate some doubt about the dates.

[vanillabean]

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@Anonymous wrote:

TEST PLAN:

Your plan was to make your third smaller card report a $0 balance.  If FICO ignores 50k CL tradelines, then by zeroing out the third, we'd expect FICO to view you as having a 0% utilization.

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My own recent plan is similar, except testing against AU cards rather than ~50K cards. See Terminated followed by AUs in FICO 08. It's hard work requiring diligent attention to detail!

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

Yes, I made sure any score pulled had a date that was at least a few days after the January statement cut.

If I leave the small card at $0 for the next month this should also eliminate some doubt about the dates.

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Unfortunately, this is not sufficent to be certain.  Here's why.  There's a variable amount of time that elapses between the statement cut and when each CRA updates its database.  Sometimes the new balance is updated two business days after the cut.  Or it could be four business days, five, six, sometimes quite a bit more.

If each CRA database was always updated within two calendar days of statement, then your approach would have worked.

You are right that we can wait another month.  The longer the test gets strung out over time, however, the greater the chance for other scoring factors to confound the results.

Still, we'll sort of have something.  It sounds like you have two FICO 8 Classic scores, a TU and an EX.  Those are the only scores you have for that particular model, right?

Can you tell us what they were in November, when all three cards were reporting a balance, and what they are most recently?  (Actually the reported scores for Nov, Dec and Jan would be great.)  And can you recap whether anything else may be happening in your profile during this time?  Inquiries turning one year old, AAoA turning over an integer year value, etc.

Also, for the smaller CL card (not the two Chase cards) can you confirm that this card has always reported (in the last 90 days) an individual utilization (considering its credit limit only) of < 5%?  If it was higher, how high has it been?