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Say you have a credit card and that month for whatever reason your balance on the card is actually negative. Is it reported as a negative balance or is it simply reported as a $0 balance? I was thinking that if "accurate information" needs to be reported to the bureaus it would be reported as a negative balance.
Has anyone ever tested this to see if it has any impact on FICO scoring? I'm just curious.
This month one of my CC's is going to report a negative balance because after I paid in full a few days later I received a refund to my card for an improperly processed transaction which resulted in a negative balance; essentially the account is at -4% utilization. This should also make my overall utilization roughly -1%, even though I'll be showing a 1% balance on one account. I normally don't try to overthink utilization too much since it's just a snapshot in time and has no lasting impact, but I thought considering this unique situation that it would be interesting to see what impact there is, if any, on my scores.
I have done this before for quite a bit. Just a mistake on my part. But never reported negatively. Only showing zero balance unless of course, you go to your acct.
@Anonymous wrote:Say you have a credit card and that month for whatever reason your balance on the card is actually negative. Is it reported as a negative balance or is it simply reported as a $0 balance? I was thinking that if "accurate information" needs to be reported to the bureaus it would be reported as a negative balance.
Has anyone ever tested this to see if it has any impact on FICO scoring? I'm just curious.
This month one of my CC's is going to report a negative balance because after I paid in full a few days later I received a refund to my card for an improperly processed transaction which resulted in a negative balance; essentially the account is at -4% utilization. This should also make my overall utilization roughly -1%, even though I'll be showing a 1% balance on one account. I normally don't try to overthink utilization too much since it's just a snapshot in time and has no lasting impact, but I thought considering this unique situation that it would be interesting to see what impact there is, if any, on my scores.
It shows as a zero balance.
Had this happen just this month I made a double payment on my US Bank card my account showed a credit but the CRA's showed a balance equal to the credit. I lost points due to a dormant card reporting a balance on one and my overall balances having an increase on another.
@Anonymous wrote:Say you have a credit card and that month for whatever reason your balance on the card is actually negative. Is it reported as a negative balance or is it simply reported as a $0 balance? I was thinking that if "accurate information" needs to be reported to the bureaus it would be reported as a negative balance.
Has anyone ever tested this to see if it has any impact on FICO scoring? I'm just curious.
This month one of my CC's is going to report a negative balance because after I paid in full a few days later I received a refund to my card for an improperly processed transaction which resulted in a negative balance; essentially the account is at -4% utilization. This should also make my overall utilization roughly -1%, even though I'll be showing a 1% balance on one account. I normally don't try to overthink utilization too much since it's just a snapshot in time and has no lasting impact, but I thought considering this unique situation that it would be interesting to see what impact there is, if any, on my scores.
CRA policy ia clearly stated in their standard credit reporting manual, the "Credit Reporting Resource Guide."
Negative balances are reported as $0.
Total CL: $321.7k | UTL: 2% | AAoA: 7.0yrs | Baddies: 0 | Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping |
Cool, thanks for the info everyone.
I guess without having negative balance reported there's no fun data point testing I can do with this
My Experian score just dropped 17 points because I had a negative balance of $177 on my Capital One card. Lately I have been prepaying on my credit card so my balance always stays low. Why did I get dinged on my credit score? Frustrating!
@AnonymousMy Experian score just dropped 17 points because I had a negative balance of $177 on my Capital One card. Lately I have been prepaying on my credit card so my balance always stays low. Why did I get dinged on my credit score? Frustrating!
Just FYI, bringing a 2 year old thread back to life usually isn't the best way to get an answer to a question you have. I only popped back in here because it was actually one of my threads and it caught my eye I'd suggest simply starting your own thread if you have a question like the one you posed above.
To answer your question, let me start with a question. Is the credit card you mentioned above your only card? If not, do your other cards all have $0 reported balances?
If you saw a 17 point drop, that's 100% in line with what would be expected if you went from one card with a reported balance (anything greater than $0) to that card reporting a $0 balance, since the FICO algorithm is now seeing "no revoving credit use." To get those 17 points back, simply allow a small balance to report on that card next month, or any other card if you have one. The small balance can be as little as $5.
The fact that you had a negative balance here does not play a role; as I found out when I was learning 2 years ago when I started this thread any negative balance gets reported to the bureaus as $0. The points you lost were due to a $0 balance being reported. The fact that it was actually a negative balance on your account was not a factor.