@Anonymous wrote:It is well advised that using only about 30% of your credit limit is good when you are trying to build credit. However, your credit limit restores when you make a payment anytime in the month. That being said, is it okay if I spend an extra 30% when my credit limit restores after making payment, or does my spending accumulate when calculating this 30%?
1. It is not true that you are well advised to use only about 30% of your credit limit.
2. It is a good idea to keep "utilization" to 28% or less on any individual card, and to 8.9% or less overall. But "utilization" is not based on "using" the card, but on the numbers which are reported to the bureaus each month, which are usually -- but not always -- the statement balances. So you can use the card as much as you want, and keep paying it off, so long as the reported balances don't exceed the recommended percentages.
3. Nothing accumulates. The balance which counts for the FICO score is the reported balance, not the balances which occurred during the month, and certainly not the spending.
+1 I wish all these websites would quit saying dont use more than 30% of your credit limit. You explianed it perfectly SJ. I explain it many times where i hang out in the rebuild corner of the forum.
@Anonymous wrote:
@CassieCard So that is not the highest balance ever reported to the CRA during monthly reporting? Some FIs actually report the highest balance at any time throughout the month each month as well?
Experian and Equifax have a 'Highest Balance', which is like you said: "highest balance ever reported to the CRA during monthly reporting"
Right now, I have a high balance on my Citi card of $1020 or so, but it will report at $0.00 because I paid it all off this week. It closes on the 5th and will report 0% utilization. If I charge $1500 next month and still pay it off before closing, that will be my new 'highest balance'.
[No that doesn't happen with Citi. It only happens with my credit union Mastercard. See later reply below.]
TransUnion is the one where utilization can have a 2 year memory. See the 'High Balance' line below on my full TU report pulled from annualcreditreport.com in March.
They track this same data for my credit union Mastercard (shown) and Citi Costco Visa card.
I guess it has to do with their use of trended data in some of their products, like CreditVision: https://www.transunion.com/product/creditvision
@Anonymous wrote:The "high balance" on all of my revolving accounts is shown on my CR as the highest reported balance ever on the account. I have yet to find a high balance shown that exceeds the highest ever reported balance, that is, the highest balance at some point mid-cycle.
I've seen it twice now with my credit union Mastercard. A lot of people with credit union issued cards may see it as well since the payment processor is PSCU, which handles cards for hundreds of different credit unions.
I do not see that with my Citi Costco Visa card, though. The 'Highest Balance' shown on the latest report from July is $572, for usage during April and reported in May. During June I charged $581 and paid it to 0$ before the statement reported.
I have never had a statement balance report on this card that went above $177 or 8.85% utilization.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:The "high balance" on all of my revolving accounts is shown on my CR as the highest reported balance ever on the account. I have yet to find a high balance shown that exceeds the highest ever reported balance, that is, the highest balance at some point mid-cycle.
I've seen it twice now with my credit union Mastercard. A lot of people with credit union issued cards may see it as well since the payment processor is PSCU, which handles cards for hundreds of different credit unions.
I do not see that with my Citi Costco Visa card, though. The 'Highest Balance' shown on the latest report from July is $572, for usage during April and reported in May. During June I charged $581 and paid it to 0$ before the statement reported.
I have never had a statement balance report on this card that went above $177 or 8.85% utilization.
I, too, have the "High Balance" on my Experian report from Barclays showing my highest balance ever ($934) when I have only let less than 8% (~$300) report each month.