Capital One First Statement

[Anonymous]

Agree with this! vvvv  If you know when the statement cuts, just pay whatever the balance is a couple days before if you're looking to avoid interest charges. No need to pay it 15x a month (exaggerating). LOL. Even if you're looking to max credit score for a reason: auto/mortgage/CC app, it still doesn't matter when you make the payment as long as it's made prior to the statement cutting and reporting to CRA. The statement cuts, wait a day or two for CRA reporting (mine cuts the 31st and reports the 2nd), and then put additional charges on it if you need to and repeat the next month.

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@TRC_WA wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@TRC_WA wrote:

For optimum score you have to let $13.02 report on the 1st statement...

2nd statement $29.88

3rd statement $21.09

4th statement $0.79  (tease them a little with an almost full payoff)

5th statement pay it off and you should get your credit steps increase.

Don't question my sources this is the method that worked for me while playing the FICO game...  also... if you pay your bill on the 2nd Tuesday of the month before midnight EST you'll get an extra $500 on your CLI.

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That is very interesting useful information!  I will have to try that one out ;-)

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Or you could just not worry about it.

I've never understood why people pay their CC account 3 times a week.  There is no point in OCDing about your FICO score because FICO has no UTI memory from month to month. 

Sure if you are about to buy a house or a car and want the best score possible by all means play the "all cards $0 one card less than 10%" game... but otherwise going out to the mall and charging $300 in purchases and then coming home and paying it before you cook dinner just so your UTI on your CapOne card doesn't hit 11% isn't necessary.

IMHO carrying $0 balances for extended periods doesn't make you look good... because creditors have no history of you reporting balances and then paying them off.  Barclays has no idea that you have paid off thousands of dollars on your CapOne card every month if you don't let the balance report... because all they see is a $0 balance every statement.

Losing 3 points on your FICO for reporting a balance isn't permanent... pay off the balance next month and the points will return.

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[Anonymous]

Hi NormanFH

This is my only revolving account.

[Anonymous]

I use my CC like a debit card, to the benefit of the cash back rewards. So because of this, I have to make multiple payments monthly. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi NormanFH

This is my only revolving account.

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With just one account, don't even worry about trying to micromanage UTI. Just PIF each month. Once you have at least three revolving accounts, THEN start doing the "less than 10% on one card" rule.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information. Will my scores increase with a util of 0% as well?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the information. Will my scores increase with a util of 0% as well?

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It will be better than high UTI. The issue when you have a single card is that it puts you in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position regarding carrying a balance. FICO dings you for not having a balance at all on your cards - but FICO also dings you for having a balance on ALL cards. Since FICO is a very complex algorithm, these two dings are never going to perfectly offset each other and trying to maintain a small balance may result in your score fluctuating back and forth.

At this point I would not worry too much about whether your scores are the best they can be or not - instead, concentrate on getting more revolving accounts established. Once you get those established, your scores will naturally rise faster as you get more good payment history under your belt.

[Anonymous]

Sounds great. Credit Check Total shows me that my scores should increase once this account has reported. Unfortunately from what I've been told, Capital One takes an eternity to report. Once it does, I'll apply for additional cards.

[Anonymous]

I will be on my 6th statement on the 13th. Did a CLI on the 4th. Maybe I'm not getting one. Oh well, nothing is guaranteed.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully my scores will jump a bit once the statement hits my reports.