I understand that some cards report highest bal. instead of credit limit. I assume this is because they are as this board proclaims bottom feeders. However, I was just curious if anyone can tell me how it came to be that they had the option to do this? Is there no law on what they must report? Its not in their card agreements. Where is it written in the credit laws that they can do this? Just wondering....thanks.
I’m not sure if there are any laws, however if they are reporting your high balance instead of your actual credit limit, this may not be a bad thing if it is reducing your balance to limit ratio... this could actually improve your credit score if there is a big difference. Michael Need extra money to pay off CC debt? http://mberry.dtsecrets.hop.clickbank.net
The Fed issued a statement that they needed to report COMPLETE information including CLs, an industry association (American Financial Services Association) which includes the 'bottom feeders' in their membership released a press release that their members had all agreed to comply with the Fed's decision. Not surprisingly, however, the industry association never replied when I asked them about one of their members non compliance with their press release. And right after I contacted them, they decided to take their membership listing off of their web site. http://www.cdiaonline.org/Metro2/content.cfm?ItemNumber=863 (Computer Data Industry Association) The updated URL for the Fed's information is http://www.ffiec.gov/press/pr011800a.htm
Barnfire: This is def. not helping my credit...its hurting it. If you use say, 50% of your LIMIT, your high bal. will report a lower number, but will look bad to lenders even if you pay down your balance on your card because the lender doesn't know what your actual spending limit is opposed to what you have put on your card. Am I right guys?? Jam: So, if I have a card that is reporting Highest Bal as opposed to CL, is there ANYTHING I can do? I actually have a letter from this bottom feeder that states they are not obligated to report credit limits. I know there has to be something that goes against that....but what? I'm linking to all of the above that you posted, but if any of you think of anything else I might use, I think this co. would fold fairly easily. THANKS IN ADVANCE!
Well, you *COULD* send a written dispute to the OC of their failure to report complete, accurate, and verifiable account information by refusing to report the high credit limit. The FCRA requires that they report complete, accurate, and verifiable account information. Now, (a) violations are not actionable, but (b)(1)(D) requires that they also provide One caution, if the tradeline is positive, you want to consider carefully before disputing it, because they could decide to not verify or notify them to delete the tradeline completely.
The other option would be to charge the account up to its limit, and then pay it off (or return the big purchase) after the statement closes. This gets them to report the HIGH BALANCE as the credit limit (or close to it), and viola. ;-)
Jam: I am thinking the second option is my best, as I am closing on a house deal. I will go make a happy purchase and then return it. Bam! I guess you are an educated consumer! All kidding aside, I enjoy your posts and thank you very much for your advice. I do have concern that they would get frustrated with me and delete the trade line. So, purchase and return I will tomorrow. Night!
don't pay or return until *AFTER* the statement closes, and the new bill is printed out, you want them to have started to report the balance to the CRAs before paying or returning...
OOOps. Guess I'll have to do it again. I'll check my statement and see what happened. URGGGGGGH. Bottom feeders suck.
