Question about closed card with balance

[TMaG82]

A little less than 3 years ago my sister ran into some financial trouble and feel behind on 2 BOA cards. One of them reported 1 30 day late but she got caught up on that right away. The other one because it was a much larger balance she wasn't able to make payments and they reported 1 30 and 2 60s before they closed it. Soon after she got a new job and started repaying everything. The 60 day BOA is the only closed card on her report. At the time it had a balance close to 9,500. Since the bottom when her score dropped to around 620 or so it has rebounded to around 705. She's asking me whether that closed card affect her score much since the remaining balance is around 5,500 and she can pay it off in a few months.

 

When we looked at her reports from MyFico and CreditSecure it doesn't seem like they're counting this account in calculation for utilization nor balance owed. Its around 5,500/10,700 on the closed card. Obviously for interest reasons shed want to pay it off sooner than later but she has one more card with a 2,500 balance on it at 1.99% promo interest than she can pay off first. So does this closed account count against her? Will paying it down to 0 boost her score a lot?

[Analysis]

Get copies of the real reports from the three CRA's, not from third party.

 

If the balances are reporting on the account, it is affecting utilization, regardless of whether it is open or closed.

[mike82fl]

I read this on another forum...

 

 

- If a closed CC account with a balance continues to report the original credit limit, then both the balance and the CL of the closed account will be used in the utilization calculations.

 

- If a closed CC account is reporting a zero CL, even if there is a balance on the CC, the card will not be included in the calculations.

 

- If a closed CC account is reporting a non-zero CL but has a zero balance, the card will not be included in the calculations.

- If a closed account reports a CL that is equal to the balance (balance chasing), then this will be included in the calculations. This is the worst-case scenario with regard to utilization.

Edited February 19, 2012 by mike82fl

[Analysis]

I read this on another forum...

 

- If a closed CC account with a balance continues to report the original credit limit, then both the balance and the CL of the closed account will be used in the utilization calculations.

 

- If a closed CC account is reporting a zero CL, even if there is a balance on the CC, the card will not be included in the calculations.

 

- If a closed CC account is reporting a non-zero CL but has a zero balance, the card will not be included in the calculations.

- If a closed account reports a CL that is equal to the balance (balance chasing), then this will be included in the calculations. This is the worst-case scenario with regard to utilization.

 

Yes, that its why the real reports are important, not third parry.

[mike82fl]

yea, i have noticed many pullers reformat information differently. good call.