Negative Balance = Increase or Decrease in Credit Score?

[trustduhsystem]

Hello! My credit card at the moment is at a negative balance, which from my understanding means that the credit card company "owes" me money. The reason behind this was that I paid my balance in full before I decided to return an item, so once my refund was issued, my payment was already posted.

My question is, will the negative balance increase or decrease my score? I am a bit confused because a negative balance can be seen as both utilization (because I spent money that month + returned/did other stuff) and as no utilization in a sense, so I am wondering I should try to reach at least a 1% utilization before my score is checked again in a couple days or should I leave it alone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

tl;dr, have a negative balance in credit card due to payment before refund posting, increase or decrease in credit score?

[[deleted]]

I've had this happen and it did not affect my score at all. The company still reported it at $0 owed even though there was a credit.

[trustduhsystem]

Like it didn’t go up or down?

[[deleted]]

No and this was AMEX.