topic Re: Aligning Statement End Dates in Credit Cards

Aligning Statement End Dates

PicoFico — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 21:52:59 GMT

Hello all!

I have 4 cards at the moment, with closing dates as follows:

CO - 9th

NFCU - 16th

Disco - 18th

Can anyone think of a reason I should pick one date over another when requesting the remaining cards to align to that date? Basically, I'd like them all to be the 9th or all to be the 18th etc.

I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks!

-PicoFico

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

K-in-Boston — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 22:29:38 GMT

The only reasons I can think of would be for cash flow reasons or to simplify bill paying. For cash flow, you might not want all of your cards due at once, or if you have for example mortgage and auto payment due at the beginning of the month you might want to balance that with credit cards due in the middle of the month. I have all of my Amex, Citi, and Chase due dates set the same so that I can manage all of them at once rather than logging in constantly. With you having two NFCU cards that simplifies it having them both on the 16th.

Edit: Another plus would be that as long as all of your creditors update fairly consistently, your scores are less likely to have big peaks and valleys throughout the month. On the other hand, if you have all large balances one month causing a score dip, it's going to be a full month before you see them recover.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

Kforce — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 22:31:29 GMT

Many Credit Unions have non movable statement dates and are set as end of month.

Some banks (US-Bank), report end of month no mater when statement date reports.

Because some months are shorter and others longer and some that can't be moved I picked the 25th.

This way all report within a few days of each other, however never on the exact same day.

This means I pay them on the 20th.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

recoveringfrombk7 — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 22:38:23 GMT

Personally I like to have 2 dates for all of my cards. That way if I need to use AZEO I don't have to worry about pending charges clearing magically for the next statement, I can just put charges close to that date on one of the other date's cards.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

PicoFico — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 23:25:46 GMT

thanks for you input everyone!

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

kerplunk — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 23:40:05 GMT

All of my cards are set to the 16th. Payday is on the 15th.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 23:50:25 GMT

I stagger my due dates, so they're at least a week apart... my 3 cards are due the 1st, the 10th, and the 17th. I'm paid biweekly so paydays move around month to month.

This way I can AZEO and control what balances report easily by not using the card I just paid until after statement cut. I can move my spend to one of my other cards. It also helps with cash flow by spreading out the burden. Sometimes I'll choose which card I'll use based on which one has the furthest-out due date at the time.

Others might prefer to put all due dates on or close to the same day, to make it convenient (pay them all at once).

If I had a ton of cards, I'd probably cluster them on 7-10 day intervals, so I can spread the load as well as make things easy to manage several at a time.

But how you choose to do it is entirely up to you. Nothing is right or wrong as long as you make your payments on time.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

wasCB14 — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:03:14 GMT

At one point I had my due dates all between maybe the 16th and the 20th. Not all on one day, but within a few days.

The idea was that my statements would close around the 26th, that all statements would be ready by the end of the month, and that I could pay everything in one sitting on the 1st. More organizational than budget concerns.

I've opened and closed enough cards, as well as moved twice and changed utilities, that the pattern no longer exists. What I have done is switch to ebills as much as possible, and pushing payments from Schwab makes most payments fairly simple.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

PicoFico — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:31:05 GMT

Well you're pretty much all on to me... I'm am asking in regards to controlling AZEO method.

I appreciate all the feedback!

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

iheartwings — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 05:38:17 GMT

With the exception of Chase, I have all accounts due on the 15th.

I set Chase to the first, namely to force my scores to update more than once a month. Also, Chase does mid cycle reporting for 0 balances, so I can still AZEO if one of my other accounts posts a balance.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

staticvoidmain — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 06:42:15 GMT

You might find it challenging in the future when you get more cards. It's a bit hard to align them. I tried and I failed. I have OCPD. I gave up, and just tried to align them as much as I can.

Problem children for me:

Citi - Has a weird calculation of the closing date. Last year, it was due-date, minus 26 days. IF Sunday/Saturday, move to Monday. However, this year, I changed my due date, and I cannot seem to get the pattern/formula anymore.

AMEX - Due date minus 25 days. IF Saturday, move to Friday (minus 26 days instead).

Synchrony - Due date minus 23 days. IF Saturday, move to Friday (minus 24 days instead).

Also, Synchrony, specifically Paypal: You only have a limited number of possible due dates (based on location, I believe).

Barclays, Capital One, and Chase are easy: Due date minus 1 month plus 3 days.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

Tomatoshadow2 — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 07:43:05 GMT

I have all my due dates on the same day for simplicty.

Re: Aligning Statement End Dates

Namaste7 — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 16:59:39 GMT

As @staticvoidmain noted, some lenders use a different methodology to determine the statement end date. The majority of my accounts are payable between the 15th and 18th of the month and the statements close between the 20th and 26th of the month. I think one CU and one bank forced me with a DD at the beginning of the month due to zip code.