Statement Cut Off Date?

[Anonymous]

Hello! I have a question as to how I should go about paying my credit card balance every month. I did some research on the forum and I see some folks saying its best to pay your balance in full, obviously; but you pay part before the statement cut off date and the remainder when it's due. Can someone break this down for me? Would I have to check with Capital One to see when the statement cut off date is? Thanks so much in advance!

[Imperfectfuture]

I would pay it down by the due date. Then, don't worry about the statement cut off date. While I was building credit, I actually had a paypal debit card grandfathered in @ 1.5% cash back. I would pay down the card to less than 10%, let that report, then pay in full after the statement cut. I would then use the paypal debit card for expenses during the transition time (and most other times as the rewards on that card sucked).

Detailed description, due date is 9th, cut off date is 12th, statement date is generated 13th (same principle for all my cards in siggie). If I want to use the cap one, I pay it down to what I want it to report by the due date (or everything I charged through the 8th, which SHOULD post by the 10th, then I pay before the cut off time on the 10th). I can then use it again on the 12th, because the statement will generate before the charges on the 12th post.

Having more than one card makes this easier.

[Anonymous]

Basically, just pay off balance by due date? I'm not too familiar with utilization.

[Imperfectfuture]

If you have 300 credit limit, pay off everything leaving about 20, let statement cut, then pay that off.

If have 500, leave about 30, then pay that off.

Basically, less than 10%.

[Dj4Money]

 Like this -

 I chatted with Capital One online.

 My statement will be available Dec 24th, my Due Date is Jan 21st 2015. So basically every month after that would be the 24th of the previous month and the 21st of the following month.

  My balance is currently 30% of my credit limit, this is a desired by the FICO scoring system. However to maximize that it likes to see balances under 10%, typically 9% is good enough; some have experimented with a bit lower than that but I don't know how much of a difference say 9% makes compared to 2%.

 Paying in FULL at the statement cut/generation will be reported as ZERO Utilization and that's what you don't want. 

 I just made another payment to get the balance down to 9% by Dec 24th. This is the balance that will be recorded with the generated statement on the 24th. What I don't know is when that hits the agencies.

 The time gap between when the statement is generated and the due date is where you pay the remaining balance in full to avoid interest charges.

[Anonymous]

This really depends on what your immediate and long range goals are. If you have no immediate credit needs in the near future, I.E., no mortgage or auto loan in the next few months, then there is no need to micromanage your CC balance. Just pay in full each month, in whatever way is most convenient.

If you are in 'credit rebuild' mode, again just keep it PIF and work on your other report issues. It sounds like you just have the one Cap1 card, so you'll want to work towards getting 2-3 more cards.

OTOH, if you are preparing to app for mortgage or auto loan, you'll want to try to 'peak' your score. In this instance you'll want to visit the Cap1 online banking site, and register your account, if you have not done so. Then you will see your last statement date on the summary page. This will be your 'target date' for your balance. If the last statement date is  12/15/14 for example - then the 15th of the month is your target date and you want your balance paid down to less than 10% (of the cards limit) a few days before that. Then a few days after the 15th, log in and pay off the entire remaining balance. Vary the amount each month to see what percentage (1-9%) gets you the best scores. Keep in mind that UTI% has no 'memory' so whatever balances you had in previous months do not affect your score, only the current reported balance is factored in.