How CC reporting affects FICO

[bichonmom]

You know where on the credit report, under the info for your CC, it says "high credit" (on EQ, anyway)? That's the maximum balance you have ever had on the credit card. How does this affect your fico? And is that ONLY the statement balances?

In other words, I've read people here running lots of charges through their cards and paying them several times a month so the stmt bal (reported to the CRA) is low or zero. I get that. What I'm wondering is, say you have a CC w/a $500 CL and you nearly max it out BEFORE paying the balance (e.g. 475), which you pay BEFORE the stmt cuts. So, when the stmt cuts, your bal is zero.

I get that the zero w/be reported to the CRA as your balance. What I'm wondering is, will the $480 be reported to the CRA as "high credit?" Also, *how* does the "high credit" reported affect the fico score?

Thanks, so much!

[GregB]

Virtually all report the statement balance. The CRAs get the info from the reporting so wouldn't know if the balance was different at other times.

[bichonmom]

Good point. I guess I wasn't sure if the other info was also reported to the CRAs (like min pmt amt and CL).

[llecs]

If the CC reports a limit, then there's no need to worry about the high balance. I hope I don't fudge this one, but no pre-set limit CCs (where the CL is absent) and the high balance field will impact your FICO in some cases. For example, my Amex charge doesn't have a limit. But on this version of FICO for TU98, FICO scores until for my Amex based on the balance and the high balance. I think same goes for some NPSL cards like signature cards. YMMV on the CCC I guess. This version of EQ FICO and all EX versions ignore the high balance.

[bichonmom]

Thank you for the info.