sushi1111 said:UPDATE: Very easy to opt-out. Call 800-524-3880 and tell them you don't want to be 'upgraded'.
abaliga said:I was told there was no way to "opt-out".
I called the number today and asked to opt-out. After being placed on hold and then asked the effective date on the letter (tomorrow, 7/29), the CSR said he had opted me out of the program.

I called today to opt out since I received a noticed and apparently I was automatically enrolled. I told them to switch me back to my regular chase freedom.

okay, I recently just got my Freedom Visa Signature, the new design one with light gray background, big blue Chase logo in the middle, "Freedom" on the upper-left-hand corner. I have the same concern on the credit utilization thing.

1. I suppose if I pay off the balance I owe on the credit card the day before it closes for the month (which I've been doing for my AMEX Blue Cash since I opened it), then it would solve the credit utilization problem. This is what I've been doing...maybe it is a little hassle but it seems the same to me as if the statement closes and send me a pay off due date).

I regularly charge about $2000 a month. Every month before my closing date the 10th, I look at how much of my credit I used this month, and I pay 90-95% of it, leaving it 5-10% left to be reported to the statement as well as the credit bureaus that I'm using my card but not over 30%. That way seems to work. I did this to my other cards too.

2. I have done many different scenarios with my cards, besides not paying the minimum, I always pay off my balance right away once the statement comes. It seems not fluctuate my credit score ranging from lowest of 711 - 760. It is still considered Tier 1 at many places, and I've never had a problem getting the best finance rate for my cars.

Just my 2cents, any more input guys?

regularly spent over

AndyUrme said:My statement says I have $5,000 Credit Access Line... My credit report stated the high balance of ~$3,500... So basically, I have a limit, and yet they don't report it. I think it does impact my score somewhat when I charge more than what I normally do (over $1,500). Then again, my credit history is quite short.

One thing I am certain of is that Chase Freedom being a NPSL card harms your Equifax real FICO score as obtained from myFICO or Equifax directly. The Equifax FICO model does NOT include your "credit access line" OR your high balance when calculating your overall credit card utilization (the report shows you the totals for both, and when you re-do the math, you will see your Chase Freedom limit is not baked in). Yet any balance you have on the card IS calculated into your utilization. (thereby raising the calculated percentage of utilization) In my case, this is at least a 20-25 point FICO hit.

You can ask Chase to report the limit, and they may or may not. You can dispute with bureaus, and they may begin reporting the limit for a couple of months, but then they will stop. Their systems are just not set up to automatically handle reporting for this card in a reasonable way. I suppose we can blame Equifax for not calculating high balance into the overall utilization calculation.

Workaround: You can reallocate most of your "credit access limit" to another chase platinum level card that reports "credit limit," and voila, Equifax will now count that unused credit into your utilization.

TU-based FAKOS do seem to calculate utilization using high credit as if it were your credit limit, which is more fair. But lots of banks look at your real Equifax FICO, while none use your TU FAKO. Extremely frustrating overall, but I hope this helps somebody. If the rewards weren't so good on this card, I definitely would not even bother.

Cheers,
VW

Eiso said:I just got done talking to two know-what-I-am-talking-about CSRs over the phone. It is true that the credit access line is indeed not reporting to the credit agencies. I just convert my visa signature freedom to a normal visa freedom. Credit limit has no change. Awesome!

Bet it never occured to all you worriers about losing a few points on your credit score that it actually LOOKS better when credit report is reviewed and they see you have a Signature Card with No preset Spending Limit which means you have a great credit history anyway to get one of them....No..that wouldn't occur to most of you......

Eiso said:craig10x , I have been thinking about what you said. It is for sure that the credit utilization thingy, but we yet don't know if really having a NPSL looks better than the credit utilization ratio thingy.

I would think it would...to be honest..i have had two Signature Cards for over two years now (both from Chase, actually).....and although i don't track Credit Scores, and not even sure how it affected mine..i can tell you that i have had absolutely no problems getting any kind of credit..and in fact, continually get barraged with tons of new Credit Card offers, so if it supposedly has an "effect"...I SURE HAVEN'T NOTICED ANY!

craig10x said:Eiso said:I just got done talking to two know-what-I-am-talking-about CSRs over the phone. It is true that the credit access line is indeed not reporting to the credit agencies. I just convert my visa signature freedom to a normal visa freedom. Credit limit has no change. Awesome!

Bet it never occured to all you worriers about losing a few points on your credit score that it actually LOOKS better when credit report is reviewed and they see you have a Signature Card with No preset Spending Limit which means you have a great credit history anyway to get one of them....No..that wouldn't occur to most of you......
Do underwriters even look for these lines, and if they do, how much of an intangible benefit would they even give? If someone has good enough credit to qualify for a NPSL line, they shouldn't have to worry about any intangible benefit associated with having that line on their report.

What about automated systems? With all of the automated AA going on right now, it seems prudent to avoid these lines precisely because any automated system reviewing a profile is going to be more likely to focus on a balance with no limit, rather than guessing that the line might actually have a very high, unreported limit.

I stupidly put a BT on an NPSL card, without knowing the difference. My FICO plummeted as a result. The line is seen as over the limit, and its credit access line is not doing me a bit of good in the calculation of overall usage. If a cardholder was carrying no balances, already had very strong credit, and was making active use of the Signature benefits, then I can see these as being a good thing.

For anyone who is carrying BT balances, or places no real value on the extra benefits, these lines are at best an unknown, and at worst a problem, and should be avoided.

On a slightly unrelated note, has anyone seen a FICO boost when converting away from a NPSL card with a balance, or getting the limit reported?

As i have said in the past...i just use my two Chase Visa Signature Cards, make my purchases and pay my bill in full every month.....i don't worry about fico scores....credit bureau reports or anything else....i have an excellent credit history, and have absolutely no problem getting credit lines, loans, credit card offerings all the time (more then i would know what to do with).....On top of that, i am retired and just have a modest pension..... and despite that have about $24,000 in combined credit between my two cards......

When i opened a brokerage and schwab investor checking with Schwab.....they wanted to give me a $12,000 overdraft line immediately (i turned it down).....

having signature cards instead of platinum hasn't affected my credit life in any way, shape or form.....

So, those that just use credit cards in the normal manner and have a good credit record..what does 10 points down on a Fico going to mean? zero...zip..nada......

This is why i can't relate to the...oh my god, they don't report your credit limit phenomena that seems to be a big issue here.....

Maybe if you are into the "balance transfer" game that is often discussed here, it makes a difference.....but as i said...if you are like the average credit card customers, who pays his bill in full every month...doesn't incur credit debt (which is a very WISE thing to do....just use credit cards as a convenience not as an installment plan).....then it means absolutely NOTHING.......

joshnashville said:FYI...I have a Bank of America Signature Visa that is my only credit card. On months that I have a balance on the card when the statement is generated versus months when I have a zero balance at statement time there is a swing of 60+ points on my FICO score. For example my December statement had a zero balance and my FICO score was 792 points. I charged about $3000 on the card for Christmas presents and when the January statement showed up on Equifax my FICO score dropped immediately to 731 points.

There were no other changes on my credit report during this time, and I've seen the same effect repeated several times over the year or so I've had the card. There is a $15,000 "limit" on the card but this does not show up on the Equifax credit report so the FICO score gets calculated as if I have 100% credit utilization on my revolving credit accounts (of which I only have one...this card).

Thanks for the details. I have heard many stories like this, but I have also heard others who have said that when using a NPSL CC, the balances weren't even taken into account when FICO calculates util %. I have heard this is dependent on the CC issuer. Apparently depending on the way the NPSL CC is reported to the credit reports, FICO views them in different ways. Not sure about the specifics, but I read an article that someone had a Chase CC with a NPSL and it reports "correctly", so that any balance on the CC does NOT get taken into account by FICO's util %. Anyone have any more interesting data on this? Let us know.

SuperG03

bkcarp said:So apparently I missed the opt-out date. Instead I just had them reallocate my credit limit over to another Chase card. I figure at least that way I do not lose my that limit on my credit report. We'll see what happens in regards to limit once the card is converted.Thanks for the reminder on this, bkcarp. Even though it's now beyond the date that I was supposedly converted (May 29th), my CL was still being reported on Chase.com. Since this was my highest Chase CL, I called them up and was able to move the majority of the CL over to a different card. The CSRs never said a word about the fact that the card was now supposed to have a CAL instead of a CL. Lucky me!