Wise words..listen to the man. He knows what he is talking about.

they can hand me a mill limit, it certainly won't make any difference to how i handle my finances... ie paying it off each month.

American Express game me a 100,000 limit 3 years ago when I was 19. Kinda stupid business practice. I heard their theft protection policies werent as good as visa and mastercard so I cancelled it.

Available credit is what you are judged on when applying for a mortgage or other long term fixed rate type of loan.

If you've got 3 cards for 10k each available, even though you've never put more than 500 bucks on each one and paid it off promptly, as far as the bank is concerned, that is still 30k of potential payments that you could encounter.

Thus the reason that most mortgage brokers who are worth a damn will tell you to pay down cards and close the accounts with written notice to the credit bureaus to only what you must have before your loan gets near closing. It not only can affect the amount you are able to borrow but it definitely affects the rate your loan closes at.

They also tell you that once you get the mortgage closed, go get whatever credit you feel the need for since at that point it's not the same detriment.

damn.

When other people check it yes, when you check it, its not.

How can it be vice versa? My credit limits dont automatically raise along with my score. I request a raise it they do it, THEN MY CREDIT SCORE JUMPS.

once again, your score isn't going up because your limit went up. you've had several people tell you otherwise, including someone who worked for Visa and who's best friend worked for Visa and Equifax (aka the credit bureau). you're wrong. christ, you're really stubborn, aren't you? does God himself have to come down from the heavens and explain credit granting and scoring to you?

if you think you're more qualified than me or my friend in the credit granting/scoring process, that's your prerogative.

i'll say it again: if you doubt my abilities or qualifications, feel free to discuss the issue with your creditors, equifax and your financial advisor. i'm not going to argue the matter with you any further.

postcount ++ you should know not to take me seriously after we talked last time.

The American Express black card

http://www.time.com/time/asia/asiabuzz/2000/12/01/

Its suppose to be the top credit card, I don't know why

bastard :321GFY :feels-hot :1orglaugh

Here's a question:

Does the good stuff that you do with the credit that you have show on your credit report/score?

For example: If I've had a credit card for 10 years and always paid it off on time. Does that somehow get shown on my credit report? or do credit reports only show bad stuff?

Yep, on time payments are shown as well as late ones. I just pulled my report recently and I think it had the last two years of payment activity from my cards.

Definitely. That's how they determine people with good credit from bad credit. And if you have a history like that, they're more likely to increase your limit if you want it increased.

I hate debt, and interest that comes with it, so I always get it paid off. My limit is rather small. I'm responsible (been using credit card since I was a teen), but even I could splurge if I increased my limit too far. So I don't.

I get occasional unsolicited offers from my bank to double my limit. No extra info or proof of income needed, they can see I pay it off every month. Until now I've politely declined because as others have said they consider your full limit to be a debt... even though it's paid off in full every month without fail.

In Australia we have a home loan feature called 100% offset, which offsets your savings against the balance owed on the loan. If you owe $100k on your loan and you have $10k in your savings account, you only pay interest on $90k. It's conceptually like a savings account paying the same interest rate as your loan.

Marry this with a credit card that has interest free days plus a 100% sweep from your savings a/c on the due date, and you can reduce the period of your home loan significantly. :)

Credit cards are like assholes, everybody's got one ;)

DH

Who cares, if you can't pay it off it doesn't matter!
Btw, I love my cc at the end of the year they send me a check for what I have spent :Graucho Might as well make money while I'm spending.

I used to run some private label credit programs, still have one going. Scoring credit is a black art really with a lot of the conventional scorings not really working well when you get a little over middle class.

Its true too much credit can work against you, but not really at some point. I know in my own case I have literally a couple dozen cards with big lines and still have great credit, because none ever has a balance.

The bottom line if when they look at a customer with a 20, 30 year history of perfect credit and large purchases that always get paid they'll forgive that you have a wallet full of platinum.

This shit is crazy these days. My 19 year old has about 10 cards already and she is still in college with no money.

Woah me wants one

Do credit reports keep info for 20-30 years?

banks do

Amex has a nice marketing ploy. They say you have x amount of credit but really they cap you on your previous spending habitats with them.:)

really?

I have a $280,000 mastercard and a no limit amex blue

Card associations are doing this intentionally. Once your daughter is out of college she'll have nothing but school debt and credit debt for life.

That's like a gauranteed customer for life.

Mike33:

Of course :-)

Card companies like the "credit card syndrome" - they can't get enough clients to throw money at whether they can pay or not.

It's called loan sharking.

But a "legal" version... tho the effects are the same.

And Amex are a prime example of loan sharking.

They'd do anything for a buck...

Higher limits actually help your credit score. 30% of your fico score is based on what percentage of your total limit that you owe. So if you charge up and pay off 5k every month and you have a total of 5k of credit it impacts your credit score negatively because it looks like your using 100% of your credit. On the other hand if your credit limit is 100k it looks liek your using 5% of your credit. The one thing hurting my credit, besides it being reletively short in history, is that I charge a lot on a monthly basis.

No. Typically, information stays on your file for 6-7 years. Even discharged bankruptcies will eventually fall off your credit file.

What TheSaint is saying is true. When you're dealing with someone in the upper class, someone who has a few hundred K in the bank, his credit score isn't all too important.

Also, what bobosoft said is correct. It's like a game. You have to keep the right balance. Using only 5% of your credit is better than using 75% or 100% of it. But a customer with $5K of credit and a $500 balance typically looks better than a customer with $100K of credit and a $5K balance, even if he's using twice as much credit.

I've got a lot of college/university aged friends without credit. My girlfriend's sister and my brother also just turned 18. They often come to us for credit advice.

The best advice I can give anyone is this: if you can't afford to pay it in full, don't charge it. Apply for a $500 - $1000 card, pre-authorize all your bills on it and pay it off at the end of the month.

Not only is it convenient (one payment to make) and free (paying it off incurs no interest), you'll also build an incredible credit score.

nice. i got $75K on my amex, but only about $20K on each my visa and MC - but i probally should call them ahev have them raised as I've been maxing them and paying them off a lot recently.

Credit information stays on yoru account forever unless its negative or you close the account. negative info stays on yoru acohahahaha for 7 years. bankrupcies stay on your account for 10 years. closed accounts, even if positive, go away after 10 years. I have to disagree with you about thepercentage thing, I think its all abotu the percentage, but you couild be right. Here is what my credit report says:

The proportion of balances to credit limits (high credit) on your revolving/charge accounts is 38%. The average proportion of balances to credit limits (high credit) on revolving/charge accounts carried by U.S. consumers is around 34%. Click here to review your Accounts Summary.

Analysis of consumer credit behavior repeatedly finds that owing a substantial balance on revolving/charge accounts (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, department store cards, etc.) relative to the amount of revolving/charge credit available to you represents increased risk. In fact, the level of revolving debt is one of the most important factors in the FICO score. The score evaluates your total balances in relation to your total available credit on revolving/charge accounts, as well as on individual revolving/charge accounts. For a given amount of revolving credit available, a greater amount owed indicates a greater risk, and lowers the score. (For credit cards, the total outstanding balance on your last statement is generally the amount that will show in your credit bureau report. Bear in mind that even if you pay off your credit cards in full each and every month, your credit bureau report may show the last billing statement balance on those accounts.)

The more you owe on revolving/charge credit accounts - relative to the amount of credit available to you - the more your score may be affected. So doing your best to pay your revolving/charge account balances is a smart way to help increase your score. On the other hand, shifting balances among revolving/charge accounts, opening up new revolving/charge accounts, and closing down other revolving/charge accounts will not improve your score, and could possibly decrease your score.

amex has a limit - trust me. when you start putting larger amount on your card you have to prove you have the money. I found out the hard way - and got a $75K limit

when you're asking for another $1000 yes - when you're askign for another $100K no - different league

amex canada told me they dont' have a black card - not sure if i believe them but american friends that have them tell me that they got told the same story but got invited to get one after one year with a min $30K a month going through the card - I'm doing a lot more then that with my card so if it does exist maybe i'll get an invite in another 6 months....

good thing is i get 1.85 aeroplan miles for every Canadian dollar spent. I have over a half million miles now - and i've given SEVERAL friends first class tickets for vacations and conventions. I'm sitting on like 8-10 first class flights to the US return now in air miles - and get the equivalant of like 2-3 return US flights a month credited to my account.

So good stuff stays forever, and bad stuff is automatically removed after 7 years? That sounds nice.

I've never had a problem getting credit, but I'm making an effort to learn more about the scoring process.

:glugglug

i'm not talking accounts. i'm talking your credit file. two different things.

a credit report reflects the last 7 years of your history. a bankruptcy will stay on longer, but it will not affect your score.

the percentage is a large factor in how your FICO/Beacon score is calculated. but unless your score is low (less than 600), the score has very little use when a credit review is being done. i've given credit to people with beacon scores of 575 and i've refused credit to people with score of 820.

as a credit grantor, if i had someone call me with a salary of $2000 a month, $700 rent, $400 car loan, $200 student loan and a $20K card with a $0 balance and asked me for a $5000 card, i'd decline them.

the reason being is that, if the person were to max out their $20K card, when it came time to make their minimum payment, they'd already be short $300.

$700 + $400 + $200 + ($20000 x 0.05) = $2300.

and if i gave them a $5K card that they maxed out, how would they repay the minimum of $250 that they'd owe me?

and this doesn't take into consideration their other bills, like heating, phone, cable, gas, food, etc.

Sometimes GFY provides gems..

This is a good idea. I always fuck around with on line bill pay, etc.. never even thought about pre-auth to one card, then pay the card.

here's a credit story - i bought a leather couch from the bay a month or so ago. they told me if i opened up a HBC card and put the couch on it i'd get another 10% off - ok. couch was $4200 - they applied with my credit card as proof of ID - and gave me an $800 limit - i said what the fuck - they said I could only get 10% off on the $800. i asked if i pre-paid could i get the whole thing off - they said yes, but i'd have to pay right there - i looked at her like she was on fucking glue and told her to charge my damn interac card then - and got the 10% on all of it - i didn't even want the HBC card in the first place now i have this $800 limit HBC card I'll never use - good thing there's no charge for it.

Wanna make your life even simpler? If your credit card company has the option, pre-authorize the credit card payments from your bank account.

Back when I was working, my pay was directly deposited into my checking account. All my bills were charged to my credit card. And my credit card payment was taken from my bank account. Never had to lift a finger :)

First thing in the morning. I just organized my bills so I can set it up :-)

bump. tons of interesting info and opinions here.

:glugglug

Is this canada only? i ahve never heard of this. They score your credit lower in the US based on number of open cards so it has the same effect but I have not heard of an actual drop in borrowing power based on percent.

http://www.hjorleifson.com/apple/amex.jpg

my spending is getting out of controll these days, but it's FUN!!!!!!!!

psyko: can you tell me where I can check my credit rating? I have never checked it and am curious as to what my score is:)

sleazy: what kind of expenses do you put each month on your card to run it that high? sure would be nice to get some ideas of stuff I can put on mine to get the airmiles and other stuff:)

couches - tv's restruants, gas, booze, gorceries, power tools, plane tickets, hotels, etc etc etc - pretty much everything - i'm on a mission collecting aeroplan miles now so i try and buy everything through my credit card

wow, interesting thread.. subscribing to it

:thumbsup

bought a gold omega watch this month and reserved the TGP VIP dinner too in that amount.... but that wasn't over $30K combined...

All those hookers.