Does credit balance impact scores?

Anonymous · ‎05-15-2012

I overpaid two accounts and they will report with a negative balance on them. Has anyone had this cause a negative impact on a fico score? I needed the accounts to show 0 for best boost and now I'm really worried.

Anonymous · ‎05-15-2012

If I understand, you overpaid your creditors (ie they owe you). If that is the case, don't worry. I have done this often. They report 0. If they reported negative balance, I am sure that would help you anyway.

Booner72 · ‎05-15-2012

I agree that they will just repot a zero.

STARTING: 11/24/10 EQ-584 EXP-648 TU04-595
CLOSED FIRST HOME 8/19/11 EQ-630 EXP-691 TU04-653
CURRENT: EQ-701 EXP-??? TU08-720

pizzadude · ‎05-15-2012

@Booner72 wrote:
I agree that they will just repot a zero.

+1. Credit balances always report as zero, and won't be subtracted out of your reported utilization.

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX

Anonymous · ‎05-16-2012

Thanks everyone! That was my hope, but mortgage application paranoia kicked in. I appreciate the reassurance!

Anonymous · ‎05-16-2012

Yeah careful. Given your scores, points matter for your rate. Out of curiosity, when they pulled your your report/score, did you show balances on your report? You are aware of the 0 balance on all but one thing? Also aware of managing reported balances?

Anonymous · ‎05-16-2012

@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah careful. Given your scores, points matter for your rate. Out of curiosity, when they pulled your your report/score, did you show balances on your report? You are aware of the 0 balance on all but one thing? Also aware of managing reported balances?

Absolutely aware of the 0 balance on all but one account and the 1-9% util for best score (will be abut 4% when all updates go through). The scores listed are not the mortgage lender pulled scores from February, but scores pulled here and a lender pulled EX score from my debt consolidation loan just done. All credit card accounts except one are now showing as paid off (and I'm trying to patiently wait for them to update before the mortgage merged report is pulled in June). None of my credit card accounts will have any further use until after the mortgage is closed, so shouldn't have any new balances to worry about but I watch them very closely.

In answer about balances showing on my report - that's a yes. In fact, that's the big thing that was really pulling down my scores. No derogatories (ie, collections, lates)... just high balance to limit and the inquiries from this past year. My mortgage LO will pull my tri-merge once all the accounts have updated to show 0. He and I are both expecting conditions to close will include closing revolving credit accounts. He indicates that they will not pull credit again before close, so he understands that no account closures will happen until AFTER credit is pulled and my scores are set.

Anonymous · ‎05-16-2012

Would love to hear what your balances and limits were on the report where your scored by myfico equifax. I want to guess what your score will be with the balances 0. Would be a great test/contest.

Btw, if you don't use your cards, could have 0 balances across all cards. Also, you can use your AMEX charge card if you have one without affecting your mortgage score. Although on manual review, they might ask you to prove AMEX 0 balance.

Anonymous · ‎05-17-2012

@Anonymous wrote:
Would love to hear what your balances and limits were on the report where your scored by myfico equifax. I want to guess what your score will be with the balances 0. Would be a great test/contest.

Btw, if you don't use your cards, could have 0 balances across all cards. Also, you can use your AMEX charge card if you have one without affecting your mortgage score. Although on manual review, they might ask you to prove AMEX 0 balance.

I will definitely update after all the scores update and the tri-merge is pulled! I'm tracking everything in a notebook and using daily monitoring on report changes through CreditKarma, Experian, and Equifax. When all is done, I'll post the befores and afters since I haven't been able to find a recent posting on here that shows the impact. On the 0 balance issue, I won't be showing 0 balance because I'm carrying a balance on my WF. With that balance included, it'll keep me right about 3-4% utilization (and that card is at 0% promotional rate, so I'm not getting hit with interest while carrying that balance!). No AMEX, so no worries there. I've found a kind of "scientific" interest in watching how the scores adjust on each monitoring service and perhaps the only frustration is that I can't pull daily EQ's here because of the cost. So I'll settle with monitoring process on the other sites and waiting for my LO to pull when all are updated.

Anonymous · ‎06-07-2012

Quick score updates (posted on Mortgage thread too): post-consolidation loan scores per mortgage lender pull today are EQ 731, TU 731, and EX 708. Tiny balances reported on 3 of the paid off accounts due to final interest amounts that posted with the statement closings and TU is lagging so 3 accounts are not reporting as paid in full yet, while 1 account is not yet reporting on EQ and EX. I'll create a separate posting that explains my circumstances in more detail but right now I need to celebrate a little bit (which involves crazy dancing for joy). My original scores are in my signature, but the biggest improvement was EQ with a 109 point increase!

It has been a lot of work and a lot of coordinating between Direct Loans, Wells Fargo for my debt consolidation loan and paying off everything I could with federal tax refund. Seeing these scores in the 700s has been the best graduation present ever (completed my MPA in April). I am NEVER going back to sub-prime land again. I couldn't have done it without the great information I've read here in this community!!