topic Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports? in Credit Cards

Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 05:01:48 GMT

If you pay your Amex account on the closing date, does the payment made on the closing date generally get taken into account before your statement balance is arrived at and reported to the bureaus? I generally pay off my entire balance every month with Amex, usually 2-3 days before the closing date but this month I actually PIF on the closing date, something I have not done prior, so I'm wondering how this will be treated and trying to figure out what balance will get reported.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Meanmchine — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 05:10:33 GMT

I guess you'll find out tomorrow

My only exp here was with Cap1

They said that it wiud have normally counted to the currrent month except if when your payment is made the banks are closed like on a Sunday or holiday

Good luckk and I hope it turns out alright

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Schwartzinator — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 05:11:27 GMT

Should be $0. My closing date was the 28th, made a payment on that date and it reported a zero balance.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 14:25:34 GMT

Thanks for the replies guys. Since yesterday was a Sunday we'll see what happens. It's no big deal really no matter what balance reports, as individual utilization and aggregate utilization will be in the same range regardless. I've been doing a lot of small-balance testing lately though, like seeing the lowest amount that a creditor will report and if Amex doesn't post my payment in time it just means I missed out on a data point this month with Amex. Not a huge deal, but for credit heads like us these little things can matter

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 14:53:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the replies guys. Since yesterday was a Sunday we'll see what happens. It's no big deal really no matter what balance reports, as individual utilization and aggregate utilization will be in the same range regardless. I've been doing a lot of small-balance testing lately though, like seeing the lowest amount that a creditor will report and if Amex doesn't post my payment in time it just means I missed out on a data point this month with Amex. Not a huge deal, but for credit heads like us these little things can matter

Amex updates available credit immediately after a payment is submitted, so a $0 balance should be reported to the CRAs.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

NRB525 — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 16:09:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the replies guys. Since yesterday was a Sunday we'll see what happens. It's no big deal really no matter what balance reports, as individual utilization and aggregate utilization will be in the same range regardless. I've been doing a lot of small-balance testing lately though, like seeing the lowest amount that a creditor will report and if Amex doesn't post my payment in time it just means I missed out on a data point this month with Amex. Not a huge deal, but for credit heads like us these little things can matter
Amex updates available credit immediately after a payment is submitted, so a $0 balance should be reported to the CRAs.

My experience, with several years history and 5 active AMEX cards, almost as soon as you schedule a payment, it seems they update available credit. Most of mine are on autopay, to a date after the statement date, but when I add a manual scheduled payment I get a notice "we received your payment" even if the schedule payment date is a ways out.

This I take as an indication of how AMEX trusts customers once a consistent payment pattern is established.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 17:44:50 GMT

I don't think this is working out in my favor, guys. It shows my "statement balance" as ~$3000 as of this morning, meaning that it's not taking into account my ~$3000 payment yesterday. Assuming the statement balance is what gets reported, I'll be reporting a near $3000 balance. I contacted CS and told them I made a payment ON the closing date. They said that payments take 1-2 days to process/post. While my "available credit" has taken into consideration the payment that hasn't posted yet as you guys have said, that doesn't change the statement balance it seems. The payment will probably post later today or early tomorrow and I of course don't expect the statement balance to change; I sort of think it is what it is. I'll report back on this in a couple of days, but it looks like my $3k balance is going to be reported.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Subexistence — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 18:44:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think this is working out in my favor, guys. It shows my "statement balance" as ~$3000 as of this morning, meaning that it's not taking into account my ~$3000 payment yesterday. Assuming the statement balance is what gets reported, I'll be reporting a near $3000 balance. I contacted CS and told them I made a payment ON the closing date. They said that payments take 1-2 days to process/post. While my "available credit" has taken into consideration the payment that hasn't posted yet as you guys have said, that doesn't change the statement balance it seems. The payment will probably post later today or early tomorrow and I of course don't expect the statement balance to change; I sort of think it is what it is. I'll report back on this in a couple of days, but it looks like my $3k balance is going to be reported.

This was my experience too.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 18:50:49 GMT

OP - I made a $645 payment on my Hilton ON the closing date and my balance on the statement shows $0 (and shows the payment made) as i paid in full. Keep us updated!

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 18:56:04 GMT

BBS any time I make a payment on the closing date it reports as $0

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:05:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you pay your Amex account on the closing date, does the payment made on the closing date generally get taken into account before your statement balance is arrived at and reported to the bureaus? I generally pay off my entire balance every month with Amex, usually 2-3 days before the closing date but this month I actually PIF on the closing date, something I have not done prior, so I'm wondering how this will be treated and trying to figure out what balance will get reported.

What time was your payment?

Most banks have a cutoff and payments made after a certain time will be applied the next day.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:09:33 GMT

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I think I know what it is

My work Amex statement never closes on the weekend. It closes the 29th, but if the 29th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it closes early on the 28th.

My personal Discover IT card does this too and I've had to learn to watch for it.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

HeavenOhio — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:30:38 GMT

BBS, I think you'll find that AMEX catches you up tomorrow (Tuesday) morning a little after 6AM Mountain Time. It appears that you're finding out that the current balance is what's critical if you're trying to control what's on your report.

The caveat here appears to be the Sunday payment. I don't think I've ever paid AMEX on a weekend, so I can't speak from experience with them. But I've noticed that with Barclays, a payment made on either Saturday or Sunday posts late Monday with available credit restored by Tuesday morning. With Capital One, Saturday payments follow the same pattern as weekdays, but Sunday payments post Monday with available credit being restored Tuesday.

It should be pointed out that if you're trying to pay money that's owed before the due date, things change up a bit. A weekend or holiday payment may actually post a day or two later. But according to law, if you initiate payment by the end of business on the due date, even if it posts later, your grace period will still be intact and you won't be hit with a late fee.

As mentioned, AMEX restores available credit immediately with the current balance generally updating the next business day. For reference, Chase also restores your available credit immediately unless your payment occurs on a weekend.

BBS is about to find out how AMEX handles a Sunday payment. If nobody knows offhand how Saturday payments are handled, that'd be something to test.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 22:30:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think this is working out in my favor, guys. It shows my "statement balance" as ~$3000 as of this morning, meaning that it's not taking into account my ~$3000 payment yesterday. Assuming the statement balance is what gets reported, I'll be reporting a near $3000 balance. I contacted CS and told them I made a payment ON the closing date. They said that payments take 1-2 days to process/post. While my "available credit" has taken into consideration the payment that hasn't posted yet as you guys have said, that doesn't change the statement balance it seems. The payment will probably post later today or early tomorrow and I of course don't expect the statement balance to change; I sort of think it is what it is. I'll report back on this in a couple of days, but it looks like my $3k balance is going to be reported.

The ~~statement~~ balance does not update immediately like the available credit with Amex.

The only CCC I know that updates both (available credit & balance) immediately after submitting a payment is Citi.

Edited to correct an error.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 20:47:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
BBS any time I make a payment on the closing date it reports as $0

Does it state that your "statement balance" is $0 on your account, or does your account show a "statement balance" as a non-zero number but $0 is reported?

Basically the question here is does Amex always report the statement balance, or is the lone exception here when a payment is made in the final hour on the closing date?

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 20:54:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

The statement balance does not update immediately like the available credit with Amex.

I didn't think statement balance "updates" at all? It's not there, then when the closing date passes statement balance is then visible on the account. I've never known this value to change once it is presented on the account. We'll see if this changes. Amex usually reports between the 21st and 23rd for me, so any day I should see the update. I'm thinking that they're going to report my balance.

Ultimately this shouldn't make a huge difference either way and shouldn't impact my scores. This coming Thursday marks 181 days since my last Amex CLI, so I was going to request another and was looking to position myself the best possible way prior to that request. Instead of showing 1% utilization on the card I'll be showing 8% utilization on the card which I don't think is any "worse" really. My aggregate utilization will then be 3% instead of 1%. These numbers won't change my scores at all, nor do I believe they'd make a difference in my CLI request result. It's just more mentally pleasing for me to know that I'm not showing an unnecessary balance of ~$3k on a card at the time of a CLI request, that's all.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

HeavenOhio — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 21:55:47 GMT

The statement balance only updates when there's a statement. The current balance tends to update once a day but may update midday at times. Available credit updates continually.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 22:52:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Anusara wrote:

The ~~statement~~ balance does not update immediately like the available credit with Amex.

I didn't think statement balance "updates" at all? It's not there, then when the closing date passes statement balance is then visible on the account. I've never known this value to change once it is presented on the account. We'll see if this changes. Amex usually reports between the 21st and 23rd for me, so any day I should see the update. I'm thinking that they're going to report my balance.

Ultimately this shouldn't make a huge difference either way and shouldn't impact my scores. This coming Thursday marks 181 days since my last Amex CLI, so I was going to request another and was looking to position myself the best possible way prior to that request. Instead of showing 1% utilization on the card I'll be showing 8% utilization on the card which I don't think is any "worse" really. My aggregate utilization will then be 3% instead of 1%. These numbers won't change my scores at all, nor do I believe they'd make a difference in my CLI request result. It's just more mentally pleasing for me to know that I'm not showing an unnecessary balance of ~$3k on a card at the time of a CLI request, that's all.

Thank you for catching my mistake. My post should have read balance (not statement balance). The statement balance doesn't change until a new statement is generated. From my understanding, the statement balance is reported to the CRAs. If I'm wrong, someone will correct me.

I think you're worrying over nothing. Amex has already reflected your payment in your available credit, right? Then your new statement should reflect the correct statement balance.

Good luck on your CLI!!!

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 23:59:19 GMT

Thanks. I will report back on Thursday both the result of the balance reported by Amex and my CLI request result. Going forward, I'm definitely going to follow the best practice of getting payments in 2-3 days before the closing date, especially if the closing date falls on a Sat/Sun.

Re: Amex paid on closing date, what balance reports?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 21:03:10 GMT

So, the plot thickens...

The other day it said my "statement balance" after the closing date came and went was ~$3k. This morning the payment I made 2 days ago posted to my account and now it says my "remaining statement balance" is $1.00 (I short paid my payoff by a buck on purpose). I've never seen a "remaining" statement balance indicated before, or if I have I didn't notice that lingo. Anyway, I'm 50/50 now on what balance will report. I should know on Thursday and will let you all know.