Paying off credit card before closing date

[Noctilum]

I have always paid off my credit card before the closing date so I do not have to pay interest on anything.  I was told that I should let it close and let the interest accrue otherwise the bureau's will not be able to see that I have been using the card as there will never be a balance reported.  I was curious if this is true.

[Anonymous]

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@Corvidae wrote:

I have always paid off my credit card before the closing date so I do not have to pay interest on anything.  I was told that I should let it close and let the interest accrue otherwise the bureau's will not be able to see that I have been using the card as there will never be a balance reported.  I was curious if this is true.

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You do not have to let interest accrue to show to the bureau that you are using the card. If your statement closes with a balance and then you pay it off before the due date then the statement balance will be reported to the bureaus (typically there are exceptions). If you pay your balance so that when the statement closes the balance on the account is zero then it probably doesn't report any balance to the bureaus. You ideally only want a balance of <9% of your total line of credit on the account when the billing statement is cut.

[Noctilum]

That answers part of the question.  Does it hurt, help or do nothing to my credit to pay it before the closing date though?

[cdtotten]

Does not hurt at all. If you pay it off before the statement cuts, it will report a $0 balance which is fine. The only thing is, if you have say 3 card, you will want 1 to report a balance less than 9% (pref 1%), and the rest report $0. Having all cards report a $0 balance will actually ding you a couple points.

[Noctilum]

Alright, thanks.  I was just trying to get my scores to the 800 mark.  I don't want to open a new account just to have it though and I only have 1 credit card and my mortage.

TransUnion says my weakness is that I don't use my credit enough.

Equifax says my weakness is that I have too new of a credit card (which was actually opened December 2009).

I charge about $400 on my card per month ($7,000 CL) and pay it off before the closing date each month.