When running up your card close to its limit so that you can pay it off and get in good with the issuer, how close should you go? Naturally 100% is BADbadbadbadbad ... is going all the way to 99% good or is it even better to stop at 75% or so? Not counting the effect on debt/limit ratio, because that will be gone in another month. In particular I'm working on Cap1 because I have a recent line increase and I'd like something closer to my limit reported.
I just did this with all 3 of my Cap1 accounts. I have run them up to within $50 of my limit (that gives me room for interest charges) then I'm paying it off in 2 large payments. I'm only letting it sit close to the limit for one full cycle. An interesting note: I've pulled successive monthly credit reports just to see what's going on with my Cap1 accounts. It's odd. For some reason, if my balances progressively increase from one month to another my "balance" will always exceed my "high limit" by 10 or so. I can't figure it out but it makes me look not only maxed but OVER my limit. So, I recommend if you're going to do it, do it in one big month... let the cycle close, and pay it down or off the next month. This is much easier than trying to get your limits shown by the bureaus.
WORTH REPEATING FROM CAP ONE PREVIOUS POST... OTHER PEOPLE HAVE SENT COPIES OF THE BILLS TO THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES WITH THE CREDIT LIMIT HIGHLIGHTED AND IT HAS WORKED. THEY ARE REQUIRED TO STATE COMPLETE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION... NO CREDIT LIMIT IS NOT COMPLETE OR ACCURATE!!! IF IT DOESN'T WORK ONCE TRY IT AGAIN...TRY TEN TIMES IF YOU HAVE TO!!!
When I exercise my credit, I try to go as close to the limit as possible without going over, but I always leave anywhere from $100-$900 available. www.creditsense.com
