topic Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report? in Credit Cards

Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 01:55:07 GMT

Not sure if this answer varies by creditor, or if there's a hard and fast rule.

Example, my Citi DC card has the payment due on the 22nd and the statement closes on the 26th (today). I didn't make any purchases on the card between the 19th and today as I wanted to make sure a very specific amount reports on the card this month. Surprise surprise, my cell phone auto pay landed on the account today, so it shows a pending transaction.

My question is, when the statement period closes today with that one pending transaction, will the reported balance be before that pending transaction, or is the pending transaction taken into account and considered part of the reported balance?

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

kdm31091 — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 01:58:43 GMT

It will only report if the charge has cleared and is officially part of your balance. Otherwise nothing to worry about. Pending transactions won't count.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

sunkissed — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 02:00:59 GMT

In my experience, it depends. If a charge has been pending for a couple of days, it may end up on the statement. However, if a charge shows up as pending for the first time on statement close day, it usually continues to pend and the statement closes without that charge.

I have found this to be true for Citibank.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 03:16:03 GMT

Cool, good info above from both of you.

Hopefully the pending transaction since it just showed up today won't show up then since it will definitely still be pending when the statement period closes at the end of today.

I allowed a $1.00 balance to remain on my account after a $4200 payoff last week, simply because I'm doing a fun test with all of my creditors to see what the smallest balance is that they'll report. Citi is my last one for this test, so I'd hate to have to wait another full month (another reporting) to get my final data point before starting a fun thread

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 16:18:29 GMT

Update here, Citi DID include the amount of the pending transaction in my statement balance! Annoying... The transaction was pending yesterday when my statement closed and didn't post until today, obviously after it was closed, but my statement balance includes that transaction.

Now I'm going to have to change the date that my cell phone auto pay comes out, or switch it to another card.

I'm going to try next week to get Citi to do a mid-cycle reporting for me, as I don't want to wait another month to test my $1.00 reporting data point with them. Citi has been working on getting my account to report to TU (it hasn't after 5 cycles now) and last week did an extra reporting in an effort to get it to do so. If I bring my balance back down to what I want it to be next week and call them and request another reporting I think they may do it for me again. We'll see.

Just a heads up to whoever has a pending transaction on their Citi account, it definitely CAN be included in your statement balance if it is pending the day your statement closes.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

noobody — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 17:52:51 GMT

most the banks do that

i find out while it take 3-5 days from pendinng to post during the month, most banks RUSH the process the same day on statement cut day, so they can get their money in 25 days instead of 55

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Kforce — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:08:12 GMT

@noobody wrote:
most the banks do that

i find out while it take 3-5 days from pendinng to post during the month, most banks RUSH the process the same day on statement cut day, so they can get their money in 25 days instead of 55

Citi definitely will "Rush Pending",

I am not sure on my other accounts.

Seems like I feel a new test in my future!

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:28:48 GMT

**bleep** autopays... I never considered the rushing of a pending charge at statement closing period.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

NRB525 — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:34:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Update here, Citi DID include the amount of the pending transaction in my statement balance! Annoying... The transaction was pending yesterday when my statement closed and didn't post until today, obviously after it was closed, but my statement balance includes that transaction.

Now I'm going to have to change the date that my cell phone auto pay comes out, or switch it to another card.

I'm going to try next week to get Citi to do a mid-cycle reporting for me, as I don't want to wait another month to test my $1.00 reporting data point with them. Citi has been working on getting my account to report to TU (it hasn't after 5 cycles now) and last week did an extra reporting in an effort to get it to do so. If I bring my balance back down to what I want it to be next week and call them and request another reporting I think they may do it for me again. We'll see.

Just a heads up to whoever has a pending transaction on their Citi account, it definitely CAN be included in your statement balance if it is pending the day your statement closes.

Not too surprising, really. A pending charge during the day can easily be picked up by a batch process overnight. The “statement date” depends on a number of factors, so these types of charges can be included.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

UpperNwGuy — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:55:05 GMT

I, too, have observed that banks usually process pending charges with surprising speed on the night the statement closes. I have always disliked auto pay because it takes away my control over the process. I only use auto pay when I am required to do so. Finally, I think you will find it easier to change your credit card billing date than your cell phone billing date.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

sunkissed — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 20:57:44 GMT

Sorry your pending charge cleared just in time to make the statement. I swear, I almost never care either way whether a pending charge hits the statement. Usually a newly pending charge doesn’t clear until after statement cut (exception, Amex). At least, in your case, it’s not the end of the world – just inconvenient.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 21:47:56 GMT

I only care because I was testing data points for a thread topic I was going to start in a week or so. Looks like now it will be a month before I can get that data point, as I'll need to wait for another cycle to close.

My cell phone company allowed me to back up the auto pay date from the 26th to the 22nd, but that's it. The 22nd is my payment due date with Citi. Backing it up to the 22nd really doesn't buy me much, as the transaction won't post until a couple of days past the payment due date. I'm not sure if you can overpay with Citi (taking into account the pending transaction amount). I may be best just off moving my recurring autopay for my cell phone to a different card, then back to the Citi card after I'm done playing with reported balance amounts.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Gregory1776 — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 22:19:58 GMT

No, only posted transactions.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 22:25:01 GMT

It's annoying but you can also just manually pay that and use the autopay as an emergency backup. Manually pay it on the 15th or 17th and you can make sure it posts way before statement cut.

I used to do that with one of my bills that refused to change the due date from the 13th, so I just manually pay it on the 1st every month and the autopay never kicks in.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:00:29 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
No, only posted transactions.

This thread has proven your statement above to be incorrect.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:01:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's annoying but you can also just manually pay that and use the autopay as an emergency backup. Manually pay it on the 15th or 17th and you can make sure it posts way before statement cut.

I used to do that with one of my bills that refused to change the due date from the 13th, so I just manually pay it on the 1st every month and the autopay never kicks in.

That's true, I could just do that for a cycle (or two) at most while I'm playing around with balances. After that I'll be fine with that cell phone balance reporting every cycle I suppose.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

kilroy8 — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:51:43 GMT

I guess I wonder if they can post a pending transaction (which may or may not post), will they post a pending payment? Seems only fair to me. One time a KFC employee rang through $25K and some change instead of $25 and some change. It showed as pending until corrected. That would mess up a slew of things.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

HeavenOhio — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:54:07 GMT

Manual payments will cancel the recurring payments. They'll resume when you once again owe the phone company some money. I did that recently with my cable/internet bill to take advantage of an AMEX offer. I threw $300 at to get the full benefit of the offer. I figured that was easier than paying manually more than once. One autopay was skipped entirely, and the next month's autopay was for a small amount.

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:57:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That's true, I could just do that for a cycle (or two) at most while I'm playing around with balances. After that I'll be fine with that cell phone balance reporting every cycle I suppose.

No idea who you bank with but if your cell phone payments are always the same you can set up a recurring autopay push from your bank a week before the autopay. This means no major concern other than logging in to check your balance once a month!

Re: Does pending transaction ON closing date report?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 01:12:52 GMT

Good point and that's definitely another option here, too. I'll just rock a manual payment next month once my bill is available and take it from there. Ultimately I'm fine with my Citi card reporting a small balance monthly, just not this month (where I got screwed) and not next month, so I'll definitely make that manual payment.