Credit questions: Balance reporting and AAoA

[lolabelle]

These are certainly questions of the  "_________ for Dummies" variety, but I'm going to ask them anyway and hang my head in shame later:  

Is the balance reported to credit reporting agencies the balance on an account as of the closing date of the statement?

When is interest calculated and applied?   

If I have newly established accounts (department store cards, mostly) that I don't foresee using which are affecting my average age of accounts number, should I just go ahead and close them?  

[Anonymous]

The amount reported will be the balance after the statement cuts.  It will vary by CRA, but usually just a couple of days. 

IMO, I would not close any new accounts,  It will affect your utilization.  It will still help your AoAa, if you do close them (7 years I think?)

Just charge something small on them to avoid them possibly closing them.

[lolabelle]

You know, I hadn't even considered utilization.  I have pretty low utilization, and these are low limit accounts.  I'll have to do the math to see whether that would mess me up...

Thanks!