@Andypanda wrote:I do not plan on apping for anything for at least a half a year if not more. I figure their is no reason to keep acounts under 8.9% since I want to show usage in order to get CLI. But on cards with smaller credit limits (Traget red card is $300 CL, US bank cash + is $1,000 CL) is their a % is too high that might prevent CLI, or worse AA? I try not to max out cards (altough last statment, I reached 92% on my target RC since I have heard that usage can lead to a CLI
any advise would be apprecated.
Andy
1. Showing usage to your lender in order to get a CLI has nothing to do with your reported balance; they know what's going through your account every day regardless of what balance is reported.
2. Usually when a card has a small credit limit they're not going to get freaked out about your using most of the limit.
3. Barclays once intimated that it's most likely to grant CLI's to people who don't use too little of their limit and don't use too much of their limit, the logic being that those who use too much are possibly risky, and those using too little are unprofitable. They showed a graph, which didn't state what the numbers were, but it appeared to my eye that the band between 10% and 30% was where you were most likely to get a CLI. This has to do with the internal balances, not the reported balances at the end of the statement cycle. I.e., try to use the card, but not let the balance get too high.
Anything under 30% is normally okay, depending on the limit. I have seen users with $500 limit cards that are always hitting the max CL and then PIF weekly. They have gotten CLI's while others that do the same thing, havn't gotten anything. I believe lenders look at your profile in a whole to see if you are eligible for a CLI.
I don't pay attention to my reported balances, never have actually, when I'm not prepping to apply for something.
Two months beforehand I'll clean up my file, and two months as I've had some lenders skip a month of reporting on me which is irritating as hell when you're prepping for a mortgage or other significant event heh.
Admittedly my aggregate credit limit is pretty high and I spend within my means anyway, so it hasn't ever gotten to be a substantial problem but 10-20 points even lost here or there just doesn't matter when it comes to account reviews... for that matter no lender even blinked when I got a tax lien or lates tacked on to my credit report, I think we have a tendency to really blow adverse action out of proportion for anyone who's behaving like a typical consumer with their credit cards.
@Revelate wrote:I don't pay attention to my reported balances, never have actually, when I'm not prepping to apply for something.
Two months beforehand I'll clean up my file, and two months as I've had some lenders skip a month of reporting on me which is irritating as hell when you're prepping for a mortgage or other significant event heh.
Admittedly my aggregate credit limit is pretty high and I spend within my means anyway, so it hasn't ever gotten to be a substantial problem but 10-20 points even lost here or there just doesn't matter when it comes to account reviews... for that matter no lender even blinked when I got a tax lien or lates tacked on to my credit report, I think we have a tendency to really blow adverse action out of proportion for anyone who's behaving like a typical consumer with their credit cards.
I haven't found it to be so easy, in this society, to know when I'm going to apply for something.
E.g., lose your smart phone, go in to get a replacement, they'll give it to you a very cheap price if you renew your contract, when they renew your contract they run a credit check. What are you supposed to do, wait 2 months to replace the phone?