Credit Cards

[kal9988]

What point in the month do CC's report balances to the CRA's? Is there a standard or is it random?

[Iincognito]

Depends on the CCC... some do it right after the statement cycles; other may report at the end of the month.

[Wolf3]

Sometimes they are late or skip a month. 

If you post the bank name, someone here will know.

[kal9988]

Chase and Bank of America. Any help would be appreciated.

[jforsyth]

BofA posts your balance on the day your statement ends.

[kal9988]

So if I want a low util % I should make a payment a few days before the statement period ends? I guess I could pay whatever has accrued until that point.

Does anyone know about Chase?

[MarineVietVet]

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kal9988 wrote:

So if I want a low util % I should make a payment a few days before the statement period ends? I guess I could pay whatever has accrued until that point.

Does anyone know about Chase?

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You are correct.

[DI]

Balances are reported to the CRAs the same day the new statement generates.  AMEX reportings lags by one month.  You have to watch BOA and Discover.  They sometimes will update your file with the CRAs twice.  I think they catch on to those who pay full balance before the new statement generates and then make charges right after. 

[jforsyth]

BofA payments usually take a few days to post (at least for me when I pay via transfer). 

I usually make my payment 4 or 5 days before the statement closes just to be safe, and then I don't use the card until the statement period ends. I'm pretty certain than you can make a payment at 11:59 pm on the day your statement ends and still have it be reported as $0 to the CRAs, but I haven't tested this yet. I'm okay with not using the card for a few days each month just to be safe.

A good thing about BofA is that you can overpay and add a credit to your account (it will appear as a negative balance online). I usually do this when I have pending payments that the merchant hasn't punched through yet.

A credit to your account gets reported as a $0 balance to the CRAs so there's no confusion.

[kal9988]

That's great news, thanks!