bug in calculation?

[silvia79]

So recently I got an alert that an account balance was reported.  I don't carry balances, but no matter what the credit card companies report.  I've asked them before and they say that they report after 30 days. It's not true.  I had a balance of $0 for months, then Citbank charge me an annual fee of $50.00, and bingo I got an alert that one of my credit card balances had gone up some percentange and there it was $50.00 from Citibank.  I had actually paid the amount way before it was due. I give up. 

That's not my problem.  This time Bank of America, even though they also say that they report after 30 days I got an alert.  Anyway, the alert said that my previously reported balance was $2.00, newly reported $165.00.  Is that really a 8150% increase?  Who calculates that?  and...  What does that do to my credit score?

Amount in H/C column is credit limit

                               Previously reported    Newly reported
Account balance:                    $2                    $165

You received this alert because this balance increase of $163 (8150% of previous balance) exceeded your alert limit of
 

Shouldn't the percent differen between two numbers be:  (($165.00 - $2.00) / $165.00) * 100  ?????

[0x47]

8150% of $2 = $163.  Also note that not all cards cut a report to the credit reporting agencies on the same day the statement is due.  My credit union, for example, reports on the last business day of the month even though my statement due date is almost a week earlier.

[llecs]

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@silvia79 wrote:

Shouldn't the percent differen between two numbers be:  (($165.00 - $2.00) / $165.00) * 100  ?????

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No, because by that math it went up only 98% and it definitely more than doubled.

And ditto to the prev. poster. Look through your balance history and try to match up the balances on the specific date and you could figure out their pattern. Nearly all CCs will report the balance you had on the statement date, but there are a few oddballs out there as mentioned.

[silvia79]

Thanks! My math was so wrong.  It just looks disconcerting when the dollar difference between $165.00 and $2.00 is $163.00.   It was also coincidental with my fico score going down a bit.  A couple of points actually, not a big deal.  However, I've been trying to understand what makes the score go up or down, and I can't understand why.  I pay my balances off every month.  I've had credit for over 15 years.  No collections or defaults. 

Anyway, Thank you for the response.

[llecs]

FICO doesn't care about the dollar amount so much as opposed to the utilization percentage. And of course you can manipulate how it reports to your CR based on the reporting date. If $165 wasn't your statement balance that month (or the month prior if they report a month behind), then it'll take some figuring.