I have a ridiculously low limit on my Citi DC, as you can see in my sig. I use it for almost all of my non-cat spending and make 2 to 3 payments a month, whenever it gets to several hundred dollars, to keep it under control. It is always PIF or very close to it before the statement cuts.
I had a minor surgery last month and paid a lot of the bills with it, so instead of just a few hundred, it ended up almost maxed at just under $2,000. I paid it off yesterday and realized while I was logged in that it was the statement cut day. I was hoping the payment would register in time and it wouldn't report that balance, but late last night I got the statement email and the balance did (or will) report.
My overall UTIL will still be very low, but it will be a case of a card that never reports much of a balance being suddenly maxed.
Yikes...
I do know that temporary utilization is no big deal and score effects will (should?) reverse themselves quickly, but I'm very curious (& a little nervous) to see what this will do.
Chase Sapphire Reserve $30,000 | Amex BCP $30,000 | Discover It $30,000 | Citi Simp $16,500 | NFCU Cash Rewards $14,400 | Citi DC $9,800 | Chase Freedom $9,000 | VS $4,100 | Kohl's $3,000 | Loft $3,000
Honestly? You have nothing to worry about unless you are planning to apply for a mortgage in the next 30 days.. even then you still have nothing to worry about since this card limit is a tiny part of your overall utilization.
However, this will temporarily ding your score. FICO scoring gets extremely unreasonable when a card is over 30% utilization, even if your overall is below 10%. A 10-20 point ding is possible, but will be reversed once it reports next statement if the card is returned to low utilization.
@Kostya1992 wrote:Honestly? You have nothing to worry about unless you are planning to apply for a mortgage in the next 30 days.. even then you still have nothing to worry about since this card limit is a tiny part of your overall utilization.
I know, I get it... 
As I said, though, I'm curious to see what, if anything, it will do to my score to have a card that has looked pretty inactive suddenly report as almost maxed.
It will actually be good info to have, I guess, but it's gonna feel weird & probably not very good to see a score drop, even though it should be temporary.
@LuckyBird wrote:
@Kostya1992 wrote:Honestly? You have nothing to worry about unless you are planning to apply for a mortgage in the next 30 days.. even then you still have nothing to worry about since this card limit is a tiny part of your overall utilization.
However, this will temporarily ding your score. FICO scoring gets extremely unreasonable when a card is over 30% utilization, even if your overall is below 10%. A 10-20 point ding is possible, but will be reversed once it reports next statement if the card is returned to low utilization.
I know, I get it...
As I said, though, I'm curious to see what, if anything, it will do to my score to have a card that has looked pretty inactive suddenly report as almost maxed.
It will actually be good info to have, I guess, but it's gonna feel weird & probably not very good to see a score drop, even though it should be temporary.
Don't look then, lol!
Think of it as a learning experience.
I'm actually conducting a deliberate experiment to increase my utilization from below 1% to 5% and see how, if at all, it affects my scores.
@Anonymous wrote:You think $2200 is a "ridiculously" low limit? I'd bet those who can't get a prime card at all would be pretty happy with that limit.
You're right! It just came on the heels of several other much higher approvals, so I was a little surprised by it. At the time I got it, there was a lot of discussion around here about lots of people getting low-ish limits, but at the same time I was seeing approvals of several-thousand-dollars SL on the DC for people with lower scores & shorter history than me, negs, etc.
I was just expecting a higher limit when I applied. And I mentioned it in my post just because it didn't take much to max it.
@LuckyBird wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:You think $2200 is a "ridiculously" low limit? I'd bet those who can't get a prime card at all would be pretty happy with that limit.
You're right! It just came on the heels of several other much higher approvals, so I was a little surprised by it. At the time I got it, there was a lot of discussion around here about lots of people getting low-ish limits, but at the same time I was seeing approvals of several-thousand-dollars SL on the DC for people with lower scores & shorter history than me, negs, etc.
I was just expecting a higher limit when I applied. And I mentioned it in my post just because it didn't take much to max it.
I feel the same way about it. I have a $2600 CL on the card. I would actually like to use it more than I do, but feel cramped by that limit. Other cards have given me $20k, $15k, $10k, limits, so I'm not sure Citi is being prudent in this regard.