credit score

[PillanSmye]

It's an AMEX business card. Will not impact score.

FTFY

[David Smith]

FTFY

Yup. I was mainly pointing out that it was a charge card, as he was unsure. It was irrelevant, though, being as it was biz. (I love biz cards. Apply for as many as you want, and don't have to think about new account hit. )

[PillanSmye]

Please excuse my ignorance. What does re-bucketed refer to?

Hard for me to explain as I didn't particularly like Statistics.    Basically FICO has an algorithm for generating your FICO score.  But they group people into "buckets" or "bins" that have similar properties and have little micro-algorithms for these subset groups.

BK's, high utilization, oldest accounts etc

An example is a guy on CreditBoards BW that did a lot of research.  I am going to make the numbers up just for example purposes.  He had say an 830 score.  He let a card report maxed out one month, and his score fell to 800.  He paid the card in full which should mean his score goes back to 830.  But it didn't.  It stayed at 822 for a couple months before rising back to 830 again.

Since FICO scores are a snapshot in time with no memory, this shouldn't happen.  But it does.  Like I said in statistics its referred to as bucketing or binning.

[newdealseeker]

Hard for me to explain as I didn't particularly like Statistics.    Basically FICO has an algorithm for generating your FICO score.  But they group people into "buckets" or "bins" that have similar properties and have little micro-algorithms for these subset groups.

BK's, high utilization, oldest accounts etc

An example is a guy on CreditBoards BW that did a lot of research.  I am going to make the numbers up just for example purposes.  He had say an 830 score.  He let a card report maxed out one month, and his score fell to 800.  He paid the card in full which should mean his score goes back to 830.  But it didn't.  It stayed at 822 for a couple months before rising back to 830 again.

Since FICO scores are a snapshot in time with no memory, this shouldn't happen.  But it does.  Like I said in statistics its referred to as bucketing or binning.

thanks

[cholent]

Hard for me to explain as I didn't particularly like Statistics.    Basically FICO has an algorithm for generating your FICO score.  But they group people into "buckets" or "bins" that have similar properties and have little micro-algorithms for these subset groups.

BK's, high utilization, oldest accounts etc

An example is a guy on CreditBoards BW that did a lot of research.  I am going to make the numbers up just for example purposes.  He had say an 830 score.  He let a card report maxed out one month, and his score fell to 800.  He paid the card in full which should mean his score goes back to 830.  But it didn't.  It stayed at 822 for a couple months before rising back to 830 again.

Since FICO scores are a snapshot in time with no memory, this shouldn't happen.  But it does.  Like I said in statistics its referred to as bucketing or binning.

Thanks... that answers the question I never bothered asking, whether I should do the $2 trick monthly or only the month before an AOR

[PillanSmye]

Thanks... that answers the question I never bothered asking, whether I should do the $2 trick monthly or only the month before an AOR

If you are letting high utilization on either a single card or overall report, you can possibly geek an extra couple of points out by doing the $2 trick for a couple of months.  Really, its why its best to just always do it, then you don't have to think about it (says hypocritical me who has had big balances report on cards lately...but meeting min spends as fast as possible was more important than geeking FICO.  Cant help if OM times deals the way they do)

[David Smith]

If you are letting high utilization on either a single card or overall report, you can possibly geek an extra couple of points out by doing the $2 trick for a couple of months.  Really, its why its best to just always do it, then you don't have to think about it (says hypocritical me who has had big balances report on cards lately...but meeting min spends as fast as possible was more important than geeking FICO.  Cant help if OM times deals the way they do)

Why can't you do both? Liquidation time?

[PillanSmye]

Why can't you do both? Liquidation time?

Liquidation time, timing in general.  I push all my payments from checking to cards as opposed to pulling the payments through the CC websites.  Takes longer sometimes.  Plus I was letting a chunk of change marinate in a Wells Fargo account to try and get a larger opening credit line.

[David Smith]

Liquidation time, timing in general.  I push all my payments from checking to cards as opposed to pulling the payments through the CC websites.  Takes longer sometimes.  Plus I was letting a chunk of change marinate in a Wells Fargo account to try and get a larger opening credit line.

You deposit directly into the account you pay from?

[PillanSmye]

You deposit directly into the account you pay from?

The banks that I pay my bills from, I don't M$ their cards.  WF will be handled differently.  Ive had that card less than a week.

[David Smith]

The banks that I pay my bills from, I don't M$ their cards.  WF will be handled differently.  Ive had that card less than a week.

I mean, do you deposit the MOs into the same banks you pay from, or transfer?

[PillanSmye]

I mean, do you deposit the MOs into the same banks you pay from, or transfer?

I don't play too many games.  I dump MO's into a seasoned bank account, and then bill pay CC's via checking account bill pay.

[Zalc]

I push all my payments from checking to cards as opposed to pulling the payments through the CC websites.  Takes longer sometimes.

What is the benefit to doing it this way?

[newdealseeker]

If you are letting high utilization on either a single card or overall report, you can possibly geek an extra couple of points out by doing the $2 trick for a couple of months.  Really, its why its best to just always do it, then you don't have to think about it (says hypocritical me who has had big balances report on cards lately...but meeting min spends as fast as possible was more important than geeking FICO.  Cant help if OM times deals the way they do)

If you could answer, I was always wondering what's considered high utilization (given that the $2 trick makes it seem that even minimal balances just over $2 are already high...)
If I have about $20K in total credit limit and have fairly small balances monthly on all of them, approx. $100-200, and then I have about $400-500 on one card that has only a $2000 limit, is that considered high utilization?

[PETERP]

Have read here IIRC , that its best to have a zero balance on all cards , and then a very small one on one card statement .
 As a long time Amex member , do you think it looks good if as far as Amexs Internal credit evaluation . if I  let a card close with around $10k , and then pay it instantly .

  IF it helps Amex decision making , does it influence my overall fico score that much . Have more than a dozen cards with a high 775 + fico score according  to Amex,  and a total CL over 150K across all banks
   Fico is over 800 at Citi , Barclays etc

Thanks

Forgot to mention Biz card

A Biz Pt doesn't even show up on your personal reports unless you default.  So it will have no impact on your credit scores. 

AMEX doesn't care if your charge cards reports balances on statements or not.  I would guess 99% of their business charge cards do report balances on statements.  Most bookkeepers / AP departments aren't paying CC balances before statements are generated.

AMEX wants you to spend lots of money on their cards.

I have a Biz Pt that has had statements cut with $120K.

And somehow intuitively I would think that charging and paying on time on a biz card would be viewed overall as a good thing by Amex ,  , that's why I suggested doing it , but I neglected to say Biz card in my first post.

[PillanSmye]

If you could answer, I was always wondering what's considered high utilization (given that the $2 trick makes it seem that even minimal balances just over $2 are already high...)
If I have about $20K in total credit limit and have fairly small balances monthly on all of them, approx. $100-200, and then I have about $400-500 on one card that has only a $2000 limit, is that considered high utilization?

Its not high utilization, but its improper. Try not to let all of your cards report with balances.  You are getting dinged decently for that alone.  Having one card report at 20-25% isn't really that big a deal, especialy if that equates to 4-5% overall.

[David Smith]

Forgot to mention Biz card

And somehow intuitively I would think that charging and paying on time on a biz card , would be viewed as a good thing overall , that's why I suggested doing it , but I neglected to say Biz card in my first post.

Intuition doesn't get you too far with fico. If it doesn't exist on your report, it doesn't exist. It builds your personal reputation with amex, though.

[PETERP]

Intuition doesn't get you too far with fico. If it doesn't exist on your report, it doesn't exist. It builds your personal reputation with amex, though.

Forgot to mention Biz card

And somehow intuitively I would think that charging and paying on time on a biz card would be viewed overall as a good thing by Amex ,  , that's why I suggested doing it , but I neglected to say Biz card in my first post.

Sorry I wasnt clear about that .

Below is original post 

"  Have read here IIRC , that its best to have a zero balance on all cards , and then a very small one on one card statement .
 As a long time Amex member , do you think it looks good if as far as Amexs Internal credit evaluation . if I  let a card close with around $10k , and then pay it instantly .

  IF it helps Amex decision making , does it influence my overall fico score that much . Have more than a dozen cards with a high 775 + fico score according  to Amex,  and a total CL over 150K across all banks
   Fico is over 800 at Citi , Barclays etc  "

Amex being the operative word

[newdealseeker]

Its not high utilization, but its improper. Try not to let all of your cards report with balances.  You are getting dinged decently for that alone.  Having one card report at 20-25% isn't really that big a deal, especialy if that equates to 4-5% overall.

Hope I understood correctly. If all my other cards close without a balance, then $400 on the one is fine?

[noturbizniss]

So i applied for and got approved for a wf card. got my approval letter in the mail along with credit score.The weird thing is they show my experian score (doesn't say what model) as 708. I have never seen one so low tied to me. I just signed up for another experian trial and they show my FICO 8 as 800. Any thoughts as to what model they are using, or why there is such a huge differential? How can i get more info on it? I requested my credit report from experian under the adverse action link, but i need to wait a week for them to mail me a code or something.