topic Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy? in Credit Cards

AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:22:29 GMT

I've been looking at the forums. I'm not sure how to phrase the question exactly for searching. I wondering about strategizing your credit card payments. I'm going to try to keep my utilization about 10% on my new AMEX BCP CL of 2.5k. Does that mean I should only charge $250 that month. OR should I use it like crazy on everything, and pay at least once a week the balance.

Does AMEX even like this type of customer?

I'm also wondering what exactly they like in their customers behavior. I'll do what ever they want. I pinky swear.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:27:51 GMT

If it's a new account with new payment information you will be on a single payment hold for a while. My account is after the first statement cut but less than 30 days old and I can't make additional payments yet, already PIF the first statement total.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:30:35 GMT

Utilization refers to what reports to the credit reporting agencies, which in most cases including this, is your statement balance. So the idea would be to spend as much as you want (and Amex likes lots of spend), but before the statement cuts, pay most of it off, leaving a small amount, and then pay that before the due date to avoid any interest (which would occur after the 0% APR period).

But.... don't sweat it. The vast majority of people just pay their account after receiving the statement. Micromanaging is stressed too much here, and even "See, my score went up by 10 points" may not have any real-world impact.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:51:44 GMT

Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:57:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.

Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:00:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.
Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.

You are mixing terms! The "due date" is the date that the payment is due. It's (for most banks) the balance on the statement close date that gets reported.

And the let '1-9% report" is what I was referring to. Yes, it optimizes the score for that month (so if you are not apping, doesn't really matter) and the impact can be small anyway. And other things on the report can be much more signficant

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:01:19 GMT

How do you tell the difference between the statement date and the due date. I've asked CS at BoA, and they just get frustrated with me.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:04:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.
Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.
You are mixing terms! The "due date" is the date that the payment is due. It's (for most banks) the balance on the statement close date that gets reported.

Yeah, I get that. However, the OP was saying that they'd pay the balance in full at the due date. By then, won't the CC have reported the balance to the bureau(s)?

For example, I believe they said their limit was $2.5k. Say they put $2k spend on the card, the statement gets cut and they pay the balance by the due date. The amount that'll get reported will be $2k, won't it? So, utilization will be at 80% even though they will have paid the balance in full by the due date.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:32:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.
Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.
You are mixing terms! The "due date" is the date that the payment is due. It's (for most banks) the balance on the statement close date that gets reported.

Yeah, I get that. However, the OP was saying that they'd pay the balance in full at the due date. By then, won't the CC have reported the balance to the bureau(s)?

For example, I believe they said their limit was $2.5k. Say they put $2k spend on the card, the statement gets cut and they pay the balance by the due date. The amount that'll get reported will be $2k, won't it? So, utilization will be at 80% even though they will have paid the balance in full by the due date.

Yes. Utilization will be 80%. And if they aren't apping for anything, that doesn't matter.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

mongstradamus — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:33:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.
Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.
You are mixing terms! The "due date" is the date that the payment is due. It's (for most banks) the balance on the statement close date that gets reported.

Yeah, I get that. However, the OP was saying that they'd pay the balance in full at the due date. By then, won't the CC have reported the balance to the bureau(s)?

For example, I believe they said their limit was $2.5k. Say they put $2k spend on the card, the statement gets cut and they pay the balance by the due date. The amount that'll get reported will be $2k, won't it? So, utilization will be at 80% even though they will have paid the balance in full by the due date.

The due date is for the previous statement. So for example you have an due date of aug 15 and statement date of aug 18. The due date for aug 15 is for the statement that cut on july 18. So if you paid balance by due date of aug 15, when it reports on aug 18 nothing should report to credit bureaus.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:35:46 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Oh. ok. I guess I didn't even really understand the small part of credit I thought I understood.LOL

Both answer help alot. So I will just PIF at the due date.
Even if you PIF, if you do it after the due date (meaning the statement has already been cut) and you have a high utilization %, it won't necessarily look good on the credit report. The advice I keep seeing seems to be to pay between 90% and 99% of your balance before the statement cuts, and the remaining portionafter the statement cuts. That seems to be the optimal route.
You are mixing terms! The "due date" is the date that the payment is due. It's (for most banks) the balance on the statement close date that gets reported.

Yeah, I get that. However, the OP was saying that they'd pay the balance in full at the due date. By then, won't the CC have reported the balance to the bureau(s)?

For example, I believe they said their limit was $2.5k. Say they put $2k spend on the card, the statement gets cut and they pay the balance by the due date. The amount that'll get reported will be $2k, won't it? So, utilization will be at 80% even though they will have paid the balance in full by the due date.
The due date is for the previous statement. So for example you have an due date of aug 15 and statement date of aug 18. The due date for aug 15 is for the statement that cut on july 18. So if you paid balance by due date of aug 15, when it reports on aug 18 nothing should report to credit bureaus.

Ah, you're right!

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

mongstradamus — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:45:32 GMT

when i first started using credit cards took an while to wrap my head around that, but longtimelurker is right as usual. Its probably just easier to pay in full whenever statmement is about to cut. An even better idea is probably to just auto pay it, i do that for an few of my cards, you don't have to think about it :-)

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

PlasticOrPlastic — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:58:47 GMT

These posts are very discouraging. Are we not the customers? Shouldn't AMEX just like somebody who pays their bill on time? All this talk about what does AMEX like, how should I please AMEX...are they really this picky? Seems like a card I'd rather not have if I must constantly worry about what AMEX will think. Isnt that the point to offering credit, customers use it responsibly and pay off what they spend, rinse, repeat? Maybe AMEX should publish "the list of do's and don'ts for carrying our card".

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:30:30 GMT

IDK plasticorplastic I'm very new to credit. I'm suprised that I even got approved having so little history. My secured CC hasn't even graduated yet. Maybe it sounds a little pathetic, but I do want to be a customer that AMEX wants to have. I want them to want me.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

PlasticOrPlastic — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 21:21:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
IDK plasticorplastic I'm very new to credit. I'm suprised that I even got approved having so little history. My secured CC hasn't even graduated yet. Maybe it sounds a little pathetic, but I do want to be a customer that AMEX wants to have. I want them to want me.

Nothing against you in that post Kitten. I wanted an AMEX bad, but my BK is keeping that from happening for a few years yet. I just worry because I dont like to sit and think about if my lenders are going to be happy with me and if I'm doing everything to their standards (I just pay on time and over min everytime) I've been seeing more and more posts that appear to be looking for ways to please AMEX. At the end of the day remember you have options and you are the customer. Your post didnt sound pathetic, I was more or less just wondering if AMEX is really that hard to please...

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

MidnightJester — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 21:41:43 GMT

Really since we are self serving credit seekers Its less that people want to please AMEX as much as it is to position themselves/myself best for CLI and to get out of the way of AR/FR with them.

Alot of people just SIT around and wait for the credit to come to then(auto CLI) in mail offers because they just dont know the credit game. Once you learn you use the rules to the max if you can. The more I learn the more I am trying to bend the credit best I can in my favor. The funny part is for differnt credit files and banks the rules are slightly different

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Middleswarth — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 22:43:54 GMT

My first statement cut on Friday with a $756 balance. I PIF on Monday (posted today). Yesterday I charged $2000 and I have no intention of PIF next month. I will have at least a $1000 balance on day 61. I will be asking for 3x ($30k) at that time.

I'm not really concerned - as long as it is paid in a reasonable timeframe I bet Amex isn't concerned either.

I'll let you know for sure how they feel on September 29th.

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 02:47:05 GMT

BofA shows you the statement date online. Under card details, it says "closing date".

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

mongstradamus — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 02:48:52 GMT

You can also take an look at your statement it will normally be same date of the month every time .

Re: AMEX BCP Bill Pay Strategy?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 19:01:03 GMT

Thanks everyone. Very helpful. It really doesn't need to be as confusing or complex as I was making it out to be.