Originally Posted by
NewbieUtah
My concern is, how does the bank,in this case, the Chase bank, regard this difference? Is A considered a better customer than B? Will A be given a higher credit limit in the future by Chase if everything else except the payment habit stays the same?
They are either the same or perhaps
A may be seen as up to something and flagged for the number of payments. Some banks like Citi only let you pay four times per month so it must be disadvantages for them in some way to receive a high number of payments during a cycle. I remember reading once that a high number of payments during a cycle may be perceived as a trait of someone who may be in financial trouble. I don't remember what the explanation for it was. Overall, banks want you to do things that make them money and not do things that cost them money.
There was an article "Confession of a Chase Representative" on the Consumerist website a few years ago. It was not about credit approval but about what the CSRs see on their screen when you call in for customer service. Below is a snippet from that:
HOW WE RANK CARDMEMBERS
There are 3 levels of cardmembers at Chase. They are segregated as BEST, VALUABLE, or NON-PROFIT.
BEST
cardmembers make up a small minority of the people at Chase. If I talk to 100 people in a day, maybe 5 are best cardmembers. If you're a Best cardmember, pretty much anything you want to gets done. You want a late fee taken off? Done. Don't feel like paying $200 in finance charges? No problem. How do you achieve Best cardmember status? You either have to move a lot of money through the bank, (we can tell if you have a mortgage, car loan, etc thru Chase), or have a high balance that you're paying a good amount of interest on. If you generate enough fee revenue from finance charges, say $100 per month, and you want a late fee taken off, no problem, we'll take $39 off this month to make you happy and make sure that $100 monthly keeps rolling in.
VALUABLE
cardmembers make up the majority of people we talk to. Valuable basically means you pay your bills on time, and are in general a good customer. You can get a fee waived also, but not nearly as often. I don't mind waiving a late fee for you, but usually only every 6 months. Thats standard, but we can base our judgment on it all the way back to a year. And if I remove a late fee for you, dont think you're getting anything waived in the foreseeable future.
NON-PROFIT
These are the cardmembers who know what they're doing. They're the group of people that pay their bill off, in full, every month, like clockwork. They don't pay finance charges, and they're never late. They don't go over their credit line, they don't have returned payments, and they earn rewards. Which all amounts to the bank isn't making any money on your account. So if you get a late fee, you have absolutely zero chance of getting it waived. That late fee is revenue for the bank, and it uses it to offset the maintenance on your account. Maintenance includes your statements mailed to you, sending you replacement cards, dealing with customer service, and cashing out rewards point / miles / dollars. For this cardmember, if you threaten to close your account if we don't do what you want, don't be surprised to get an offer to close your account during that phone call. Why? What is the incentive to keep you? I know its pretty cold hearted, but thats exactly how it works. You do a great job on your account, but you can get punished. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them.