Cancelling CCT Trial

[Anonymous]

I know you guys probably get this question a lot, but I couldn't find a fix so here goes.

I called them to cancel on 2/2 and it says I did. I have the cancellation number and whenever I call them now, it says that I have the free membership. Whenever I try to go for another $1 trial, though, it says I already have an account. When I try to log into the account, it says I have to update my credit card information. I used Privacy to prevent them from charging me more than a dollar, if that helps. I tried calling two different numbers and always got an automated message. 

I tried emailing them yesterday and haven't gotten a reply yet, which is understandable. Is there anything I can do to speed this up though? It's not a big deal, but I know that my EX FICO score shot up 47 points for leaving a small balance and just wanted to know the effect on my other scores. And again once Chase reports that I paid the balance to 0. I'm really curious and this is just killing me inside. x.X

[arkane]

If your membership is indeed cancelled, you won't be eligible for another $1 trial until your current one ends, which should be 10 days from when you signed up.

In any case, you'll get a notification saying you're eligible again when you log in if and when that happens.

[Anonymous]

Off topic here, but you said you know your score shot up from "leaving a small balance."  If by this you mean that you went from all $0 balances to AZEO, a commonly suggested gaming technique on this forum, your scores would increase around 15-20 points on average.  A 47-point jump wouldn't happen simply from implementing AZEO.  If your score went up 47 points, it was because of AZEO and something else.  Maybe you meant you had a high balance and took it down to a small reported balance?  Depending on your individual card and aggregate utilization, a 47-point jump for that is certainly possible.

[Anonymous]

Ahh, ten days. I thought it was seven ^-^' I'll check again soonish then, thank you!

And yes, the AZEO method is what I was aiming for. I took a closer look at some of my reports and now I have more questions haha. Before my Chase Amazon, the only card I had was as an AU (dad's card). The AU card is ~3 months old and the Chase Amazon is <1 month, but AAoA is 1 year 9 months. My balance was always zero because I pay as soon as it posts, but I'm noticing for the first time that I had a "High Balance" on some reports. This current report is saying the High Balance is $135 and the Balance is $28 on my Amazon account; $428/$0 on the AU card. 

Is it because it's my first card/statement? Does that even make a difference? I did read that having three cards was good, but I thought the point of having three was to use AZEO. I get how and why the High Balance is being reported, but based on utilization it doesn't seem all that high. I kind of just assume that a) my dad's CL will keep my util down and b) Chase only reports when my balance is brought down to $0 or after a statement. My CL is $1,500 on the Amazon and the CL on my dad's card is $17,000.

[Anonymous]

"High balance" simply refers to the largest reported balance on that account ever.  That balance will stay on your credit report visible to all until the day it is exceeded (and reported).  At that point you'd have a new "high balance" on the account.

For example, say your current high balance on the account if you look at your credit report is $500.  Every month you may run $2000-$3000 in charges through the card, but pay them off completely and your statement balance ends up being less than $500 every month.  That $500 "high balance" will remain on your account.  Say one month you decide not to pay off your $2500 current balance, and only pay $500 of it.  You leave $2000 to cut at statement time, so your statement balance is $2000 and your new reported high balance on the account will then become $2000.  High balance only impacts your utilization the month that high balance is reported... so in the above example that person would have utilization of $2000/their credit limit on that card.  The following month, say their reported balance is $400, as they paid off the majority of the previous month's charges.  Their new utilization is $400/their credit limit on that card, even though the "high balance" will still say $2000.  Hopefully that helps!

[arkane]

I think each issuer does high balance reporting a bit differently. 

For example, it seems Chase and Barclays will report the highest posted balance on your account during that billing cycle, regardless of what the statement actually cuts at. Personally I think this is great as I like to run up my balance a few times to

a) get lenders used to seeing me at >30% util and realizing I have sufficient means to PIF, or even PTZ before statement cuts

b) show any future lenders that not only can I spend big, but I can easily pay off the bill as well

and this saves me the trouble of having to report an absurd util that month. 

Then on the other hand you have Discover that I'd guess reports high balance only if it's your statement balance. I've definitely ran mine up to >60% util, but on all my reports it simply reports high balance as $0. If other lenders do a manual review they'll get the impression I never use my Disco lol. 

[Anonymous]

So I guess High Balance can be a good thing haha. This is the first time I've had a statement balance over $0, so if this is what boosted my score I'm kinda lovin' it.

Still, I thought the score was based on not the actual balance, but the balanace relative to your limit the way Brutal explained it. I guess for the individual card, the High Balance would show me at just over 8.9% and <2% for the regular balance. This is the first time my card is reporting to the credit bureaus though, so there's nothing for them to compare to besides the one with the high CL, which never crossed 3%. Are they just using the differences from the same report?

As an update to my original question, I still can't log in and it's been 12 days. Should I just check in every so often until the notification shows up?

[Anonymous]

The high balance on both of my Chase cards is the highest statement balance I've ever had on those cards.  I've had my mid-cycle balances many times higher, but Chase has never reported those in between balances as my "high balance."