how to get EQ to look at CURRENT data?

[expatCanuck]

Well, *this* is maddening.

On 22-Jan, I paid down my AX to $0.

On 6-Feb, EQ is 719, with AX showing as $0.

On 11-Feb, I get an alert that AX balance is >$5K, and score is 689.

WTF?

AX was zero, and yesterday had an <$30 finance charge, which I immediately paid.

Why is EQ using old data?

Message Edited by expatCanuck on 02-14-2010 01:01 AM

[Jazzzy]

I'm sorry...I have to ask.

Do you mean American Express?

If so, my AmEx reports a month later than my other cards. Mine is a Delta AmEx. In other words, the AmEx balance showing on my credit report right now is last month's statement balance. I believe AmEx reports currently with some cards, but certainly not with mine. There is a one month delay.

Did you have a zero balance and then a >$5k balance, and now a zero balance again? If so, AmEx is reporting one month late, so it is not EQ's issue. Also, I hesitate to even use the word "late" because it is just how AmEx reports.

I'm not sure if this is your issue, but it is how my AmEx reports.

[Anonymous]

When is your Amex statement date (not to be confused with the due date)? Did you pay on or after that date? Is the balance that EQ shows equal to the amount that you paid off? What was your statement balance last month?

Also, what's your current 'real-time' balance? Does that match the current balance that EQ is reporting?

Finally, where'd you pull your report from?

I'm thinking that what you're seeing now is the reported statement balance, fueled by your saying that you had a finance charge.

[GregB]

As others have reported, you are seeing the delay in: 1. Statement being generated by Amex. This is according to your statement date. 2. Delay in Amex reporting to EQ. Others have reported a consistent delay of Amex reporting of around 30 days. There may be a number of different Amex cards that have different reporting. Mine is Amex Optima. It used to report fairly late. For the last year or so, it has reported promptly after statement but has completely missed at least one reporting cycle, making it 30 days late in reporting. 3. Delay in EQ updating your score. Seems to be 3-8 days in my experience. I know everyone that pays an account off wants instant gratification but the system is slow to give us our "reward".

[expatCanuck]

Thanks to all.

Yes, AX means American Express.  

I paid off my balance Jan 21-22, before the Feb. 12 statement date.

The balance didn't go from zero to 5K to zero. 

(Would that I had such discretionary income.)

But what absolutely baffles me is that EQ was up to date and then went

backward in time.  (It showed >$5K in late Jan / early Feb), then its report

reflected the (correct) zero balance, and then it went back in time

tothe >$5K balance of the Jan. statement. 

Arrrrghh!! 

[Anonymous]

If you want AMEX to reflect $0 on your reports, you have to stop using the card for about 60 days or be very quick at PIF'ing on their pull date.

So if the pull date showing on your credit reports is 1/15, that means you should have done a PIF on 12/15 the prior month (probably 12/14) so AMEX returns a zero when they do their upload.

This indicates that AMEX uses a reporting database to upload data to the credit bureaus and not the live database which they run their customer accounts from.  This is pretty typical with large companies that have massive computer databases.   There's several copies of their database floating around because their systems can't handle the load of all the employees sharing a single big system.

[haulingthescoreup]

The re-reporting of the balance is odd, but I did want to mention that many of us have found that AmEx is now updating to the CRA's at the statement time and has dropped the four month week delay.

I don't know if this has percolated through to all products, but I've read reports that both charge card holders (a Platinum, I think) and several different types of revolvers (Blue etc) reported the January balance in January. Of course, then there's the usual wait for EQ and TU to put the ding-dang numbers up, but it appears that American Express has now officially moved into the 21st century.



edit: Thanks, LynetteM!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-16-2010 03:33 PM

[Jazzzy]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
The re-reporting of the balance is odd, but I did want to mention that many of us have found that AmEx is now updating to the CRA's at the statement time and has dropped the four month delay.

I don't know if this has percolated through to all products, but I've read reports that both charge card holders (a Platinum, I think) and several different types of revolvers (Blue etc) reported the January balance in January. Of course, then there's the usual wait for EQ and TU to put the ding-dang numbers up, but it appears that American Express has now officially moved into the 21st century.

---

Hi hauling...I think you meant to say the four-week delay???

I can report that the Delta AmEx still reports with the four week delay. I hope it catches up with the rest of AmEx soon.

[haulingthescoreup]

Yes, thanks for the catch! (It just felt like four months, I guess.)

[expatCanuck]

Folks --

FYI, after some online messaging dialogue with Amex, I was put in touch with Amex's Credit folk.

After some protracted dialogue where I couldn't give them the reference number they required from

a CRA report (to tell me what they last reported, & when), I simply asked that they report now, off-cycle,

to the 3 CRA's and advise of the zero balance.

They said 'Yes.'

Probably a co-incidence, but my EQ shot back up today.

(No reason given, but it's gotta be a balance thing --

there's nothing else good that could be going on credit-wise).