topic Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff? in General Credit Topics

How long before score changes after a large payoff?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 06:11:54 GMT

I zeroed out all my cards on January 6 (balance on one was near 20K) dropping my utilization rate from 90% to 0%. Haven't seen even the slightest change in my credit score. The largest balance card had a statement cutoff of January 5th, next one February 6th. Do they report at the end of the month or when the next statement balance comes out? Trying to figure out if score will move Jan. 31, Feb. 6 or Feb. 28.

Thanks

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

Priory_Man — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:13:58 GMT

Go to Credit Karma and look at your report, it will tell you there when each card has been reporting.

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

FlaDude — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:06:26 GMT

It depends on the company. I read in a recent thread that Chase reports immediately when the balance hits zero, that mirrors my experience exactly. Others will just wait until the next monthly reporting time, typically when the statement closes. You can also request a mid-month report, see this thread for more details:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Off-Cycle-Update-Mid-Cycle-Update-to-Credit-Report/m-p/5349148

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

Remedios — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:14:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I zeroed out all my cards on January 6 (balance on one was near 20K) dropping my utilization rate from 90% to 0%. Haven't seen even the slightest change in my credit score. The largest balance card had a statement cutoff of January 5th, next one February 6th. Do they report at the end of the month or when the next statement balance comes out? Trying to figure out if score will move Jan. 31, Feb. 6 or Feb. 28.

Thanks

Most issuers report statement balances, I believe US Bank reports on the last day of the month and Chase wil report when balance is paid down to zero, in addition to reporting statement balance.

However, if all your cards report zero, there will be a scoring penalty.

You will still see a gain from pay down, but not as much as you would if one of the cards reported a small balance

I'd leave $10.00 to report on Feb 6th date

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:29:22 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I zeroed out all my cards on January 6 (balance on one was near 20K) dropping my utilization rate from 90% to 0%. Haven't seen even the slightest change in my credit score. The largest balance card had a statement cutoff of January 5th, next one February 6th. Do they report at the end of the month or when the next statement balance comes out? Trying to figure out if score will move Jan. 31, Feb. 6 or Feb. 28.

Thanks

That card that had the largest balance won't report again until after the statement closes on Feb.6. And it will report whatever your statement balance is. So say you charge another $200 on that card between now and then, then it will report $200. Exactly when it reports depends on the card issuer. Most of the larger banks report pretty quickly (within a day or so). A smaller local bank might report once a week or possibly even less frequently. And then it takes the CRAs a day or two to process it (I find Experian to be really quick while Equifax is the slowest).

So the answer to your question is that you're likely to see the results of paying down that one particular card sometime between February 8 and maybe as late as a couple of weeks after that (although more likely closer to the beginning of that range).

And if you do charge on the card but want still want it to report a zero balance, there's nothing stopping you from paying it down to zero again a few days before the statement closes.

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

HeavenOhio — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 05:53:10 GMT

Welcome, @Anonymous. Watch your following statements for trailing (residual) interest. That's a tiny leftover interest charge from your newly paid off balances. Pay those charges immediately; the amount will be trivial.

Some people miss trailing interest and don't find out until a 30-day late pops up. Watch your statements like a hawk until you see statement balances of zero.

Along with taking care of interest, you're going to want to reset your grace periods. That's generally accomplished once a statement balance of zero is cut. It might pay to check with each bank to make sure that there aren't any unanticipated quirks in their grace period policies.

If it means resetting your grace period and making interest go away, the "all cards at zero" penalty for a month or so is well worth it. Ideally, you'd have one card reporting a small positive balance. But you don't want to delay resetting a grace period to make that happen.

Re: How long before score changes after a large payoff?

cumminsdieselfreak — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 01:00:19 GMT

I zeroed out all of my cards on 12/28 and it’s taken up until today for most of them to update with one balance that hasn’t updated.