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As long as I pay the balances to zero before the statement hits, no ding to your score. As I understand it, the credit card companies report the data to the bureaus soon after the statements are generated.
Exactly! We use our Citi Doublecash card for everything we can. I send a payment in weekly and always make sure we have close to a zero balance on the actual statement (so our total credit utilization stays at 1% or less). The one month we ended up with a statement with a big balance (we moved into a new house and spent a lot on appliances, water softener, etc.) our credit scores took a small hit and didn't bounce back until the following month's zero balance was reported. (We went from 1% total credit utilization to 3% and I think the scores dropped 10-15 points.)
Citi Double Cash is awesome with the 1% cashback upfront and 1% cashback when you make the payment. I also like Discover IT, AMX Blue Cash, Chase Freedom, Capital One QuikSilver and the Upromise MasterCard. These are my favorite cashback cards, especially with Discover and Chase Freedom during the 5% calendars, and AMX with the 5% cashback on all my grocery store shopping.
I figured it would report back quickly but if someone did the above and went looking to take out a loan or apply for another credit card in my case they might get denied or get a much higher rate just based on timing. I know credit karma scores aren't 100% correct but one of my scores dropped from 730's to 670's.
I was at 680 paid off a credit card with 80% utilization and it went to 820.
Now I have a couple business cards and put the bulk of my spending on those.
Credit cards report to the bureaus about 3 days after payment due date. So if you have a balance of $2000 on a $4000 card and pay off the card a little before the due date, then the credit card will report th balance of zero. Credit cards don't report late payment until 30 days after the due date. So there are people who pay before the 30 day late, but after the report date, so their high balance gets reported, but they don't get a 30 day late.
I read on fico forums that it's best to have a low balance reported of around 5%, instead of a zero balance. A zero balance can look like you never use the card. A low balance looks like you use the card responsibly. Also, some cards skip some months reporting to some bureaus. So you should make sure you have a low balance reporting every month or at least for a few month before you need to apply for credit.
One think I don't think a lot of people understand is that a person doesn't have "a credit score". As in, not just one. Your credit score varies from day to day. If they pull the report the day after your credit card payments post, your utilization would be different than if they pull the report the day before the payment posts, and thus, your score could be quite a bit different, only 24 hours apart.
I use about 2-5% of my available credit every month, and then pay it in full before the due date. My credit score, when I refid my house last year, on a day when I was using about 2%, was around 820. If you are in this range, it doesn't really matter what day they pull the report. But if you need a 760 for your interest rate on your mortgage, and your score is hovering between a 750 and 775, and you are carrying 20% utilization on your credit cards monthly, then what day they pull the report compared to your habits for the previous few weeks could make a huge difference.
One think I don't think a lot of people understand is that a person doesn't have "a credit score". As in, not just one. Your credit score varies from day to day. If they pull the report the day after your credit card payments post, your utilization would be different than if they pull the report the day before the payment posts, and thus, your score could be quite a bit different, only 24 hours apart.
I use about 2-5% of my available credit every month, and then pay it in full before the due date. My credit score, when I refid my house last year, on a day when I was using about 2%, was around 820. If you are in this range, it doesn't really matter what day they pull the report. But if you need a 760 for your interest rate on your mortgage, and your score is hovering between a 750 and 775, and you are carrying 20% utilization on your credit cards monthly, then what day they pull the report compared to your habits for the previous few weeks could make a huge difference.
This post is mostly true, except that it only matters what your balance is on the one day of the month that the credit card reports the balance. Every day of the month your credit card balance can be different, but the credit reporting bureau only knows what the balance is on the one day of the month that they get the info sent in from the credit card company.
Credit cards report to the bureaus about 3 days after payment due date. So if you have a balance of $2000 on a $4000 card and pay off the card a little before the due date, then the credit card will report th balance of zero. Credit cards don't report late payment until 30 days after the due date. So there are people who pay before the 30 day late, but after the report date, so their high balance gets reported, but they don't get a 30 day late.
I read on fico forums that it's best to have a low balance reported of around 5%, instead of a zero balance. A zero balance can look like you never use the card. A low balance looks like you use the card responsibly. Also, some cards skip some months reporting to some bureaus. So you should make sure you have a low balance reporting every month or at least for a few month before you need to apply for credit.
I think you are better off not paying interest. You might want to look at your credit report to see if the poster was correct. I think you will find they were not.
I read on fico forums that it's best to have a low balance reported of around 5%, instead of a zero balance. A zero balance can look like you never use the card. A low balance looks like you use the card responsibly. Also, some cards skip some months reporting to some bureaus. So you should make sure you have a low balance reporting every month or at least for a few month before you need to apply for credit.
I wonder if this is the answer, although I've been using my credit cards.
Here's my story: I've had an excellent credit score for a long time. I get scores from Discover, Citi and Capital One each month on my statement, whether or not I use the card. I realize that sometimes those scores aren't up-to-date or exact, but they give me a general idea of what my score is, since it fluctuates from month to month. I never cared if the scores varied a little, even if there was a 20 or 30 point difference, as long as my score was over 800. However, maybe they weren't real in the first place.
This is what happened. Discover has been reporting the same score for almost a year and now it's 37 points lower this month. Also, Citi was reporting a very high score and now that's dropped by 31 points. I haven't checked my credit report in years, but tonight I went to the TransUnion site, and there's nothing out of the ordinary. All my accounts are paid in full and there's no derogatory credit or late payments. I am holding off checking the other 2 bureaus.
I just can't think of anything that would lower my score except that the TransUnion report showed a zero balance on every card. I use a credit card all the time to buy groceries and gas, but I pay it off before the statement is generated. However, in the past that increased my score, so I'm puzzled. Maybe next month my score will go back up, but a drop of over 37 points is worrisome.
It could be bucketing. FICO uses "buckets" to group people with similar data. The average age of your accounts (or some other factor) may have changed and sent you to a new bucket. You might have been at the top of your old bucket but now you are in the bottom of the new one (compared to everyone else in that bucket).
If that's the case, no big deal. You have more room to "grow" now in your new bucket.
I think Credit Karma gives too much weight to credit utilization. I'm at something like 65% and CK really dings me for that, estimating my score at 645. But Chase reports my score every month and they say it is 731. Not sure who is right.
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