"Amount in high credit column is credit limit" - what does this mean?

[Lel]

Looking at my Equifax credit report, virtually all my active credit cards have this comment. However, it's not true. For example, I have one credit card that has a CL of $20,500, and the high credit listed is $6677. But the utilization calculated by EQ clearly uses the actual credit limit, not the "high credit" amount. Am I interpreting the meaning of this phrase incorrectly?

The reason why I'm curious now is that I just received a SW alert that indicated my EQ score had gone up by 13 points. The reasons were 1) a previously dormant credit card showed recent activity, and 2) one of my accounts [the same account] reported changes.

This account was a credit card issued to me by B of A when I opened my bank account with them 7 years ago. It has never been used. The "recent activity" was reported on 4/1/2008. I'm not sure what this activity was.

The change that was reported seems minor - basically, in the description of the credit card, it changed from "Credit card, amount in H/C [high credit] column is credit limit" to simply "credit card". Maybe this change is the "activity" reported above.

Anyways, I'll gladly take the jump in score. But I'm baffled by the meaning of this phrase and the remarkable effect that the elimination of this phrase had on my score.

Insights, anyone?

[Anonymous]

That shows up on mine also. I think it is the highest amount you have charged on your card. I could be very wrong. I have one with a CL of $300. When I went over the CL by $77, it showed HCL as $377. It is up to date now, but that still shows up.

Someone probably knows better than me. I was just taking an educated guess based on my CR.

[Anonymous]

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&message.id=74581#M74581

[Lel]

Hi Cheddar,

Thanks for the link. As both you and I have noticed, despite this quizzical phrase, our utilizations are correctly calculated. So it shouldn't make a difference.

But for me, this minor change - the deletion of this phrase - seemed to have a positive impact on my credit score! I checked prior EQ credit reports, and have confirmed that there has been no CL increases or other changes. It doesn't make sense.

Maybe, perhaps, SW just didn't give a correct explanation for the score increase. Recently, I have been trying to reduce the number accounts with balances. I've been piffing before the statement closing dates so that more accounts will report zero balance. Maybe this is what is really happening. But I would think that SW would be able to figure that out too.

Fickle, fickle, FICO!

[Anonymous]

Yes, your observation about how it affected your score is an interesting one.

BTW, I posted the link to the other thread just as a reference, not as a possible answer to your question.  I am puzzled by the notation as well.

I just can't imagine how that comment could affect the score in a negative way, especially when utilization is correctly calculated.  It's not a derog description at all.

[Lel]

Hi cheddar,

Still, I appreciate your sending me the link. I always kinda figured that many (if not all) have the same thing on their credit reports, but it's nice to have confirmation. There is comfort in numbers.

Anyways, there's got to be something else that explains the score jump. Or maybe....we should all work to get that phrase deleted off all our revolving accounts! Wouldn't that be a waste of time!