3 payments vs. 1 for 3X the FICO benefit

[Anonymous]

I was informed by a seasoned credit consultant that when making a monthly payment to a loan or credit card, (balance or minimum payment), if you were to make three payments that month instead of one ,for example, $10 on the 10th, $10 on the 20th, and the remainder before due date, you are actually gaining 3X the postive payment points  through the FICO scoring module. Ultimately, instead of gaining the points for making an on time payment, you will gain 3X that amount.

Anyone familiar with this? She said it was advice you would not find anywhere on the internet or elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

That's very interesting. I have seen notations, depending on where you pull your report, regarding amount of last payment made. Wondered what that info was for. Would be nice to think....I just have a hard time believing that it's true considering some of us have been working our files for several years using every known technique and bouncing around to the different forums and have never heard this. Here's to wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

For possible further validation purposes, there were a small number of attendees in the audience of this credit seminar that said, "Oh yeah, I heard about that a number of years ago and I've been doing that ever since. I just have each creditor make automatic withdrawels out of my savings/checking account so I don't get tangled up in the extra accounting". I'd like to here some more feedback.

[Anonymous]

OCs report the amount owed, minimum monthly (or monthly installment payment), and the limit on CCs. They don't report to the CRAs what you actually paid.

But, if you wanna take the idea for a spin and get the maximum benefit, you could try setting up payments to one of your CCs using your bank's Billpay and schedule payments every day. Pay 'em $2 a day for 21 business days rather than a single payment of $42.

[Anonymous]

There might be some confusion here with making several payments during the billing cycle in order to lower your finances charges, rather than having anything to do with FICO.  Because your finance charges are based on your average daily balance, if you lower your balance during the month by making more than one payment, the interest for part of the month is lower.  Net result:  you owe less.  This is a good thing.

As for FICO scoring, I don't think it makes any difference if you make multiple payments.  It only matters what your utilization is on the day the score is generated and whether your last payment was for at least the minimum amount due and was paid on time. 

[Anonymous]

I use an assortment of billpay methods. MyCheckFree.com, my bank's online billpay, and certain OCs billpays on their websites.

I like MyCheckFree because it's like doing free wire transfers. The money comes outta my bank account on day X, and it's credited to the OC on that same day. No float. If I could do EVERYTHING with MyCheckFree, I would. It's bank agnostic, and in fact you can set up multiple bank accounts and pay select bills from select accounts. Downside is that an OC has to participate in MyCheckFree. Upside is a lot of CCs, utilities, et al. do participate and MyCheckFree customer service is superb--although I've rarely needed 'em. Also, I get to schedule when the money goes. I can pay 'em early, and decide how early. I schedule payments usually on the date of my Direct Deposit. I never really miss the money that way.

I tend to avoid letting the OC withdrawal from my account directly--mostly because I've had 'em screw it up more than once and I'm left fighting them to straighten it out, get penalties and fees removed, or get adverse TLs updated. If you've seen my GW letters, one of them is to GMAC because they transposed routing number on my check. That said, I do pay a couple of OCs via automatic draft, grudgingly.