HIGH Credit

[MrTom]

On your credit report, there is a line where your Highest Balance is listed.

For an example 605

And lets say you have a 500 credit limit.

And your current balance is 50.

Does your credit score havea disadvantage because of a high balance reporting higher then your credit limit?

Would a credit limit increasefor this card cause your score to go up?

[Anonymous]

No, "high balance" has no impact on your credit score at all.  The only thing that matters with respect to your current score is your current reported balance relative to your current limit, which results in a percentage.  That percentage is the value used when determining that portion of your FICO score.

[manyquestions]

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@MrTom wrote:

On your credit report, there is a line where your Highest Balance is listed.

For an example 605

And lets say you have a 500 credit limit.

And your current balance is 50.

Does your credit score have a disadvantage because of a high balance reporting higher then your credit limit? No. Highest Balance does not factor into FICO except for some older versions of FICO where the Highest Balance was used for the credit limit on American Express charge cards. You wanted the Highest Balance to be as high as possible so your charge card did not appear maxed out.

Would a credit limit increasefor this card cause your score to go up? The card is currently at 10% utilization 50/500.  Your score might go up a point or two if your utilization was lower, but probably not.

[Moneyklutz]

I'm pretty sure the 'High balance' listing is/may be used by underwriters that are doing a manual review of your file prior to buying a house or such.

FICO scoring does not utilize that column for its calculations from what I've garnered.

Your credit score can go up if the card receives a credit limit increase, which then causes a drop in utilization shunting you into a lower tier.

*edit to add...never start a post during the act of making dinner and not finish it. Whats been said above is enough already =)

Anyone with greater knowledge please correct me if I'm wrong as I'm very much still a grasshopper here. 

[Anonymous]

I think a "high balance" can be a decent factor (a postive one) when a profile is looked at for a CLI request.  If the creditor that is considering the CLI looks at several of your accounts and they all have pretty high "high balances" [relative to the credit limit] but you PIF so you carry no balance on the card (and have no meaningful current reported balance) it shows that you do heavily use your card(s) and pay them off.  This could stimulate a CLI, as it shows you're a low risk borrower, but you do have the ability to spend a good deal.

[SouthJamaica]

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@MrTom wrote:

On your credit report, there is a line where your Highest Balance is listed.

For an example 605

And lets say you have a 500 credit limit.

And your current balance is 50.

Does your credit score havea disadvantage because of a high balance reporting higher then your credit limit?

Would a credit limit increasefor this card cause your score to go up?

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I don't think high balance gets factored in, but why would you have a higher high balance than your credit limit?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@MrTom wrote:

On your credit report, there is a line where your Highest Balance is listed.

Does your credit score havea disadvantage because of a high balance reporting higher then your credit limit?

Would a credit limit increasefor this card cause your score to go up?

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I don't think high balance gets factored in, but why would you have a higher high balance than your credit limit?

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@High balance only comes into play for NPSL cards where psuedo utilization is calculated as: (current balance)/(high balance). That comes into play for mortgage Fico EX Fico 98. I tested this with my AMEX charge card a few times @ 100% B/HB.

NRB525 had multiple cards with high balances at multiples of credit limits.

All it takes is CLDs to realize HB > CL.

[Revelate]

Indeed; I have a CL on my original BOFA card of $2500; however, my HB from when it was a secured card with a 5K limit is $3500.

Graduated at a lower limit than my old high balance; ain't no big thing apparently.

Before 2011-2013 there were a lot of NPSL cards that didn't report a limit; BOFA was the last holdout... and there, high balance mattered as it was used as your limit (old school credit building, soon as you got a credit card you maxxed it out to set the high balance at your limit).  Now it doesn't except for Amex charge cards to my knowledge on FICO 98 models which are becoming more rare in terms of use.

[Anonymous]

I have screenshots of a chat I  had with a CapOne Business Credit specialist who told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn't using my Spark Card enough to qualify for a CLI.  I had had the card for six months and I was certain I read it somewhere that it would be automatically reviewed at six months because I then decided well for only $500 I can't even use it for a full fare air ticket round trip anywhere I'll just wait.  But to be sure I clicked the button anyway and sure enough it came back with a reason that said there is not enough usage on this account to justify a limit increase, which backs up everything the rep said so I figured ok, no prob.  (This was when I was naive).  I have a merchant account at Amex.  I charged that card up to the max and paid it off, right then and there.  The rep said ok do that again.  I'd have to find the transcript on how he phrased it, so sure enough I did.  The second time around the charges were listed as pending instead of done deals which I thought was odd, but ok I thought it might be a fraud protection thing.  I was assured it wasn't.  Next month, I re-applied and was denied once again for some bogus reason, I forget.  But then it added your use of revolving credit is too high (which I thought at the time mean Bal High) not utilization because the utilization still reported as 0/0 as far as I could see.  The only change was Bal High.  So am I correct in my new thinking that utilization is always based on reported balance versus reported limits at the time the report is pulled?  Because if so, I am still getting the use of revolving credit is high as a high alert for cards and I can't find that anywhere else on any report since 2011 (and I have every single report I have run since 2012 saved).  And I'm curious as to why.