Paying off balance before statement

Uncle_Money · ‎08-05-2008

Hey Folks,

Question - I'm in the process of lowering my utilization and prefer for most of my accounts to report a "0 balance" right now. Is it wise to pay the bill BEFORE the statement even arrives? This way, the account will report a zero balance. All comments are welcome. Love the forum!

Anonymous · ‎08-05-2008

Nothing wrong with having most of your accounts reporting zero. Generally, whatever is on your statement is what reports. However, I would recommend having at least 25% of your accounts report balances...even if they're teensy weensy ones. I managed to get two of my accounts to report a $1 balance. That must have galled the CCCs to no end...

FretlessMayhem · ‎08-05-2008

Not only before the statement arrives, but before the statement even cuts!

As TNWM stated, nearly all CCCs report the balance that is on the statement to the CRAs. So, if you want some to report a 0 balance, you should PIF a couple days before the statement cuts.

Here we go again...

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2008

MyFico says it is good to show use of credit cards. I've been paying mine down to a very small amount right before the statement posts. My statement posts the 9th and usually by then I've paid down to a balance of $50-100. It seems to be working to keep my utilization low and keep the card active.

One of my cards hadn't shown a balance in 3 months and then I put a $30-something charge on it ($1500 limit) and I got an alert from Scorewatch. The alert said a new account had been opened. (No new account had been opened.) The changes on the report were a balance increase from 0 to 32 and a "previously dormant account reported activity." Then again, score only dropped a point at this news so probably not worth worrying about..