If you want to make sure that it reports a balance, I'd pay it whenever you get the email that says "You have a statement available" or after. As long as there was a balance on the statement, it'll report that to the CRAs, and it'll show that you use it. Other than that, it doesn't matter when you pay (as long as it's before the due date).
Hello and welcome to the forums!!!
From what I have read several times, it's best to pay down your balance before the statrment cuts, and to have ideally less than 9% to report.
Example... I have a card with a $1k limit... I use thru the month, and may rack up $600 on it, but a week-week and a half before the statement cuts, I pay it down to 2%. I'm rebuilding, so I keep my reported util lower.
You will have the experts chime in here though soon, and will tell more....
you have come to the right place ! Good luck to you
From what I have read several times, it's best to pay down your balance before the statrment cuts, and to have ideally less than 9% to report.
Example... I have a card with a $1k limit... I use thru the month, and may rack up $600 on it, but a week-week and a half before the statement cuts, I pay it down to 2%. I'm rebuilding, so I keep my reported util lower.
You will have the experts chime in here though soon, and will tell more....
you have come to the right place ! Good luck to you
Welcome to the forum. If your goal is to show util, then you should pay your bill after the statement cuts. To avoid paying interest in the reported balance, pay the balance before the due date.
If you are concerned about maximum FICO scoring, then have your reported balance be less than 10%. If you have more than one rev cc, then only have one cc report a balance.
If you are concerned about maximum FICO scoring, then have your reported balance be less than 10%. If you have more than one rev cc, then only have one cc report a balance.
@MMB85
It's true lender A would know the daily transactions for their card but lender B would not have any idea about lender A's daily transactions. High balances and recent balances are listed on the CRs ...not daily balances.
It's true lender A would know the daily transactions for their card but lender B would not have any idea about lender A's daily transactions. High balances and recent balances are listed on the CRs ...not daily balances.
+1. Op is talking about an overall credit picture as seen by all current and possible future lenders, who do not see the daily transactions on a Discover card, they see the reported statement balance.
EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Not exactly true, depending on report that is used, EX for example reports Balance, payment, and date of payment, other lenders can see your usage even if no balance is left on the card, below is from an old EX report I pulled last year.
@jamesdwi wrote:Not exactly true, depending on report that is used, EX for example reports Balance, payment, and date of payment, other lenders can see your usage even if no balance is left on the card,]
OK, but the point of this thread was to give advice on how to show usage for the purpose of credit scoring in order to be in a better position with lenders to apply for future tradelines. Stating that it doesn't matter, since some reports show previous payment amounts, is not a helpful response. Having a small amount of usage report on the statement does matter, it has been proven to increase the FICO (as opposed to having all accounts at $0 balance), and most lenders are going to partly be basing their decision to extend credit on the score that they pull.