Soring System

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do know that you aren't responsible legally speaking. However I have a friend whose card was misused starting the day after his account had closed (Statement Date). His statement was fine, until the next month, and then some $12,000 showed up on the card. It was all in local purchases so it apparently didn't trip a fraud alert at the CCC. He wound up not having to pay it but the hoops he had to jump through were something else. Better to be able to get them early!

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'm familiar with the fields.  However I think that it's not a missing field it's just not using the data available properly.

There are three fields that would easily answer the payment issue. These are  the 'Account current' field and the 'Late 30, 60, and 90' fields as well as the 'Payment Status' field.

Anyone consistently paying on time and in full would have a consistent answer of 'OK' in the Account Current field and would never have anything other than '0' in the 30, 60, or 90 fields and 'Current' in the Payment Status field.

It's not a case of not having enough information.

[oracles]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I'm familiar with the fields.  However I think that it's not a missing field it's just not using the data available properly.

There are three fields that would easily answer the payment issue. These are  the 'Account current' field and the 'Late 30, 60, and 90' fields as well as the 'Payment Status' field.

Anyone consistently paying on time and in full would have a consistent answer of 'OK' in the Account Current field and would never have anything other than '0' in the 30, 60, or 90 fields and 'Current' in the Payment Status field.

It's not a case of not having enough information.

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Hi Prof

That actually is being utilized. This actually makes up 35% of your fico score. This is what you call payment history and because you have excellent payment history, it shows in your score.

However there is another component that makes up 30% of your score and that is utilization. debt to credit ratio.

Unfortunately, the only way to calculate this is by taking the balance of what is being reported by the credit card companies. I agree it would be great if they (the credit card companies) took the balance at the  due date however it is not. It is up to the credit card company to decide what balance at what time will be reported which has nothing to do with the credit formula.

If we want to play the game, we need to manipulate our balances when it is being reported.

Again, it is up to you if you want to play the game

hope this helps

[Anonymous]

790 is nothing to be sore about; most people on this board would be thrilled to have that score, Other than the ability to apply for more credit before your score goes south of super prime to merely prime,there is no practical difference.

You don't have to pay your balances before the statement date if you just use your credit cards like they have 1/10 the actual limit, If one is 21k, don't charge more than $2100, if $300, not more than $30.  Take another 10% off those figures to squeeze a few more points out of the system(i.e $1890 and $27). And if your not going to be applying for credit in the next month or 2 its completely unneccessary anyways, especially at 790

The only reason people play the "low utilization statement date game" is that many peoples scores are right at the border for better credit, where even another 10=20 points will get them to lower rates and/or higher credit lines.

That said I am presently reducing my reported balances so I can apply for a Discover card with a decent limit, but otherwise there is no need to

[Anonymous]

One last thing, just because you get a grace period before interest is assessed doesn't mean that money is not borrowed. It is more than fair to report the balance on the statement date as that is exactly how much money the credit card company has out there that has not been paid back. As credit cards are traditionally some of the friendliest loans available it is very easy to forget it is still a loan; even at 29.99% it beats every single payday loan except the ones paid within 24-48 hours.

It is the friendly nature of credit card debt that can get people in trouble, so the scoring is geared to reflect that the most responsible use of credit, above 0% but less than 10% of available credit, gets the best scoring for the  utilization part of the score.

[Junejer]

Well said, reots.