Question regarding how disputes are effecting credit score.

[Anonymous]

I was recently added to my mothers AMEX card as an AU. This TL is now reporting on my 3 CR's but I was disappointed that I did not see any increase whatsoever. This card has low util%, balance of 660 with a 6100 CL. It is 3 and 1/2 years old which I realize does not hurt or help my score since my AAoA is 3 years with my most recent account opened just 4 months ago. The entire TL is flawless with no lates. Here is my question, Could this new TL not have impacted my score as my ONLY other two CC accounts are currently being disputed? I started the dispute a couple weeks ago because I paid down the balances and was hoping to have the new balances report correctly faster if I disputed them instead of waiting until the cycle ended. Anyhow, I do realize that these 2 accounts are not currently factoring into my scores because according to alot of the posts in this forum, it states that they are not included during a dispute. So could this be why the added AU account hasn't totally effected my score yet? Or is it just not going to help me at all? The two cards that I am disputing have very low CL, one is 250 and the other is 375, so I was really looking forward to the new AU account helping with my available credit. Thanks in advance to anyone who can give insight

[RobertEG]

I think you have (almost) answered your own question.

With three credit cards, and two under disptue, then the two under dispute are not being included in your % util calculation (they are, however, still being included in your credit history scoring).

That leaves only one cc currently being used for your % util scoring.  That means thats 100% of your scored accounts are showing a balance.

I would immediately try to remove your prior disputes.  Disputing to attempt earlier credit balance reporting is not a grounds for dispute of inaccurate reporting.

When, and even if, a CCC reports to the CRA is not mandated by the FCRA or credit reporting guidelines.

Get rid of those disputes, and the AU card should show benefit.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.  I have one more question I still don't fully get. So this new AU account has a high CL which helps make you look credit worthy. Why wouldn't this new TL with the high CL have impacted my score alone? With only having those 2 other CC's with terribily low limits, you would think that adding such a significant amount of available credit would also help raise my score, regardless if those low limit CC's are in dispute or not. Before I had the AU account, I just had those two cards and I use them every month but always tend to keep the balances very low (7-10%), so I know my util was always in good standing. If I'm talking in circles, which I very well could be, I'll sum it up in one quick sentence..... I KNOW the util of the 2 disputed CC's are not currently factored into score, but with the AU account now showing and giving me a much higher CL, why wouldn't that alone trigger a score increase?

[vanillabean]

Is the Amex a charge card or a credit card? Do your credit reports list the CL? Do your score reports list the util?

[Anonymous]

The AMEX card is a credit card. It's actually a Citi Bank card. And yes, the credit limit is reporting as 6600. The score reports do list the util. 

Thanks!!

[vanillabean]

Good. Bringing the util for the card down from ~10% to 1% is bound to increase your score.

It should be added though that Amex takes a long time to report, in my experience a month following the end of the billing cycle. I'm sure your disputes from the other two  cards will have resolved by then!