American express Charge Card

[Anonymous]

My FICO score went down today because I used an Amex charge card and it reported a balance at the end of June.  I thought using a charge card would have no impact on your score as long as it is paid in full.   It didn't go down terribly much but still this is concerning.  Any thoughts? 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My FICO score went down today because I used an Amex charge card and it reported a balance at the end of June.  I thought using a charge card would have no impact on your score as long as it is paid in full.   It didn't go down terribly much but still this is concerning.  Any thoughts? 

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My understanding is that although it's not counted in computing utilization dollar percentage, it does count in  utilization as an "account with a balance".

Me, I'm done with Amex charge cards, after my Gold card was declined on a $3k transaction because I'd never spent that much before on it. I don't like having to guess what my credit limit is. I also don't like having to try to figure out ways to get usage from their charge cards that offsets their humongous annual fees.

[Anonymous]

As was previously stated, it does count towards the number of accounts with a balance. It does not factor into utilization on the newer scoring models. I use AMEX charge cards often and never have issues with charges being approved. I've had more issues with other lenders denying charges do to "fraud concerns" regardless of my available credit on that account. Even very small amounts. I would not hesitate to swipe my AMEX charge card for any amount. This is one of the reasons I love American Express so much.