Which Balance does Amex charge cards report?

[Anonymous]

Is it 

A. statement ending balance

or

B. total monthly charges

and does it benefit me to not start paying down a balance before the end of a billing cycle if it is my highest balance?

The balance exceeds any other credit limits I currently have and was thinking I could use this to help with a CLI.

[OhioCPA]

A.

If you are trying to set your high balance for the older FICO scoring models, then you would not get a benefit from paying down early. If you already have your high balance set, then it would benefit you for those older models.

By letting a new high balance report you might be lowering your score on the older models. If you are looking for a CLI on another card that uses an older FICO score for consideration of a CLI then you might be hurting your chances. Letting a high score report one month, then nothing report the next month might be the best course of action in this case.

[Creditaddict]

Also Amex is known for running 1 month behind what the balance is on your statement and what gets reported.

And like other poster mentioned, only the TU08 I believe it is doesn't calculate the util right for the Charge cards, but all other reports do so I just wouldn't worry about it at all unless you are trying to squeeze through a tiny hole to get approved for a mortgage and another balance would get you declined.

[teenastie]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

Also Amex is known for running 1 month behind what the balance is on your statement and what gets reported.

And like other poster mentioned, only the TU08 I believe it is doesn't calculate the util right for the Charge cards, but all other reports do so I just wouldn't worry about it at all unless you are trying to squeeze through a tiny hole to get approved for a mortgage and another balance would get you declined.

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I believe CA means TU98