hamokmonky

Best guess is you let a credit card close with a higher balance than it had previously. Credit karma seems pretty sensitive to that.

maksimfa

You may get your card shut down... but...

If you cycle your credit limit 500 times in a month, as long as it is zero balance before the statement close date.... it will not even show up in the credit report.

Charge cards will show your highest limit/purchase, but even still.... what the statement cuts at.

Electroman

If you read this thread, you'll find out that's not the case. I posted screenshots of Experian and Equifax reports showing where this appears. It's on TU reports as well.

maksimfa

Maybe if the info is actually furnished by bank? I have looked at my reports weekly, and did not see on any.... And with ms I did routinely 4x my limits.

VegasGambler

My Chase cards stopped reporting the amount paid about a year ago.

Pinned

Personally, I think the Credit Karma scores are complete nonsense. My score dropped 44pts for high utilization, but I have NEVER carried a balance. My scores, as reported everywhere else, remained unchanged. Credit Karma's scores report about 75pts below my actual scores.

VegasGambler

You can have high utilization without carrying a balance.

Pinned

I guess that's what I'm finding out - either way, I think Credit Karma is overly sensitive. Their reporting of my scores is drastically different (and fluctuates much more easily) than any other report I've seen.

VegasGambler

Well, you get what you pay for

But utilization is determined by the balance that the lender reports to the credit bureau, which usually happens when the statement is cut. Whether you subsequently pay it off in full does not matter; it has already been reported.

In other words, suppose your total credit limit across all cards is $100k. If you spend $10k per month on the cards and pay it all off by the due date, you utilization will be 10%. On the other hand, if you don't spend anything on the cards but carry a $10k balance (making interest payments only, which exceed the minimum payment, so you are in good standing, and the balance remains steady at $10k) your utilization is also 10%. These are very different situations, but utilization does not distinguih between them.

If you want to lower your utilization, either increase your total credit limit (apply for CLIs, or open more cards) or pay off your balances before the statement cuts (so that no balance gets reported).

If your income allows for it, I'd suggest having high enough combined CL that, given your usual spending patterns, your utilization generally hovers around 1-2%, and never goes above around 5%. Then you can just forget about it.