topic Re: How do you know when balances are reported? in Credit Cards

How do you know when balances are reported?

jenn_bar — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 01:53:20 GMT

Question is as it is! How do you know?

Everyone seems to have a strategy to pay the credit cards within a time frame of the moment they are posted. How do you know this information and when is it best to pay in full?

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 01:57:11 GMT

I believe the rule of thumb is that the CC reports to the bureaus after your statement cuts. So if you have a balance on your statement that balance will show on your report. I could be wrong; if so, can someone please correct me.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

flan — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 02:08:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I believe the rule of thumb is that the CC reports to the bureaus after your statement cuts. So if you have a balance on your statement that balance will show on your report. I could be wrong; if so, can someone please correct me.

It depends on the bank. Most of the big ones work like this. Some do other things, like only report once a month. I believe US Bank reports only on the first of month, and reports that balance. The credit union I used to use reported the closing balance, but only once a month. You can watch with a credit monitoring service, or you can ask the bank when they report.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Themanwhocan — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 03:16:48 GMT

I use creditkarma.com and I do NOT use the 'connect your accounts' feature. So the list of credit cards, their balances, and the date they were updated correspond to the dates that the credit card companies last reported my balances to Transunion.

Or else I use creditsesame.com and click on the "Credit Monitoring" tab halfway down the page. Then I click on "View all alerts". I can select a different month if I want, then I see 2 alerts on the dates each balance is reported, one for "Your credit usage has changed", and one for "Your balance increased/decreased by $xxx". i use the date listed for either alert. Then I know the date the credit card companies reported my balances to Experian.

I have no method for determining when the credit card companies report to Equifax. I can live with that. Mystery is the spice of life. Though personally, I would have voted for either Oregano or Garlic.

At least, thats how I discover the dates that each credit card is reported.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

tk_0014 — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 03:19:26 GMT

I've found that typically a few days to a week after the minimum payment is due, shortly after the statement cuts.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

SnackTrader — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 03:21:42 GMT

Generally speaking, and this is the case for all of the cards in my signature, lenders will report the balance that remains at the end of your statement date. This information is reported over the next few business days, so I generally see my balances update within five business days on each of the bureaus.

The most important thing is identifying which date's balance is reported so that you can control the amount that reports.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 04:40:35 GMT

@flan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I believe the rule of thumb is that the CC reports to the bureaus after your statement cuts. So if you have a balance on your statement that balance will show on your report. I could be wrong; if so, can someone please correct me.
It depends on the bank. Most of the big ones work like this. Some do other things, like only report once a month. I believe US Bank reports only on the first of month, and reports that balance. The credit union I used to use reported the closing balance, but only once a month. You can watch with a credit monitoring service, or you can ask the bank when they report.

I believe US Bank is the last biz day of each month.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 04:40:52 GMT

OP, check this http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Exactly-When-Do-CC-Companies-Report-Balances-to-Credit-Bureaus/td-p/644900

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 06:05:50 GMT

US Bank reports on 1st of each month. Talked to several CSRs, and the date my US Bank accounts are updated with CRAs often falls on the 1st.

Everyone else mostly reports 3-5 business days after statement closes.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

Themanwhocan — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:13:34 GMT

I have 2 US Bank credit cards, and 1 Emigrant Bank credit card. All 3 are issued by Elan Financial Services. Statement dates are June 5, June 7, June 11.

According to Credit Karma they were all last updated on May 31st (not anywhere near their statement dates).

My Discover IT statement date was June 10th, and Credit Karma update was June 10th.

My Barclay's (Priceline.com) statement date was June 5th, Credit Karma update June 6th.

My American Express BCE statement date was May 21, Credit Karma update was May 23rd.

At least, thats how I see it.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

SnackTrader — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:58:02 GMT

Folks, you all have best intentions here, but the actual question the OP wants to ask is not WHEN the lenders update, but WHAT do the lenders update.

The answer for most companies is that they report the statement balance from the last day of a statement cycle. But that is not the case for all lenders. Of course, there is typically a small delay after that for the bureaus to actually feed that information into a personal credit report, so it takes something like 3-5 business days. But the timeframe of updating is rarely as important as the information that is reported, which is why paying cards down before the end of the statement cycle saves utilization %.

Re: How do you know when balances are reported?

DaveSignal — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:10:55 GMT

I have one card, Military Star, that reports the current balance (not statement balance) towards the end of each month sometimes and sometimes at the beginning of the month, but never more than once a month.... sometimes it even alternates which CRAs it reports to.

But, I have a great system for controlling balances that report. It might not work for everyone, but here is how I do it: I have a lot of open credit cards with good sized total credit limit, but I only use one or two cards. I just use my one, sometimes two, cards, and pay more than my full bill and then just continue using my card. Whatever small amount accumulates over these few days I let report. Since I have a large amount of other cards that I don't use at all, my utilization is very low and my total amount of used cards is a very small fraction.... both good for a FICO score.