topic Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes in General Credit Topics

Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:30:03 GMT

Hi,

First, I hope those reading this are feeling healthy and avoiding complications with the pandemic.

My question is: is there any way to address the lag in credit reporting/score changes? For instance, I have a credit card with an annual fee of $69. The following timeline occurred:

April 1—The fee was assessed on my card.

April 6—I paid the entire balance of the card, which was only the fee.

April 8—Notification from MyFico that a balance change of +$69 occurred. Score drops 4 points.

By the time I've already paid off the entire balance, the bureau is just getting notification of the charge. Is there any way to circumvent this?

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:46:53 GMT

Not quite sure how AF's work in general since I don't have any, but I'm assuming it reports on your CC statement? If so, just like regular balances, anything reported on your statement when statement cut would report to the CRA's.

And as far as CRA's reporting, it takes a few days maybe sometimes

up to a week to get the information from lenders. Think of it like a piece of mail, it needs to go through several processes to be delivered.

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:45:35 GMT

Yes, the fee shows on the statement, just like a charge. But my issue is that I'm being penalized with a lowered score for having a balance on April 8, except that I already paid it off on April 6. The lag is what I don't understand.

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:49:40 GMT

Like I said, it can take a few days maybe sometimes up to a week to get the information from lenders. Think of it like a piece of mail, it needs to go through several processes to be delivered. So that "lag" you're talking about is normal and there's nothing you can do unfortunately.

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:52:48 GMT

Unfortunately, you're being penalized for showing a balance at the time of statement cut. Lenders only report the information on your statement and won't update to the CRA's until after the following statement.

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

dragontears — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:54:55 GMT

Most lenders report your statement balance and it does take a few days up to a week or so before your monitoring service sends you a notification.

Credit reporting and monitoring are not done in "real" time

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

FlaDude — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 13:47:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately, you're being penalized for showing a balance at the time of statement cut. Lenders only report the information on your statement and won't update to the CRA's until after the following statement.

Chase is the primary exception to this, they will do a mid cycle report whenever the balance is paid down to zero.

For the OP, unless you are making a major credit application, I don't see this as a big deal. It will right itself next month.

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

RobD3 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 14:01:50 GMT

Solid advice. I would add this....ANYONE who is time-sensitive to anticipated/actual changes in the account items on their reports should be EQUALLY as sensitive to the importance of their specific account Statement Closing Date. FORGET due dates, it's the SCD that holds the magic elixir. The extreme importance and tactical timing of payments relative to SCD's is on par with payment histories and utilization. Most all lenders will adjust the "due date" on customer request, which in turn changes your SCD. Deliberately, I have set ALL of my revolvers SCD's EXCEPT ONE, to the 10th of each month. I could care less what the due date for any of them are. All revolvers are used until 3-5 days out from the 10th and then I STOP using ALL of them except the ONE. Then all except the ONE are paid off, which I continue to use in place of the others until after the 10th. Then 2-3 days later, I STOP using the ONE, pay it off... and return to the normal stack. The SCD for the "ONE" is on the 15th of every month. Rinse and repeat this every month. Your scoring based on the components of Payment history (35%) and Utilization (30%) will jump SIGNIFICANTLY. Just my 2 cents....

Re: Lag in FICO Score Changes

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 20:24:24 GMT

Excellent advice! Thanks so much!