topic Re: Extra Credit File Updates in General Credit Topics

Extra Credit File Updates

tebtengri — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:19:58 GMT

Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

Say you had a 0% intro, made a $9000 purchase you have the money for but want to spread it out. Making minimum payments but 8 months into the 12 you need or want to use acquire new credit. You already paid this month and it's 30 days til next statement. Why don't they offer a service where they'll send an updated balance?

They can charge for it, and I imagine a few people would use it. Car craps out and you need a new one but have high utilization? Pay it down and get an intrastatement update.

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

pizzadude — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:40:18 GMT

@tebtengri wrote:
Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

Say you had a 0% intro, made a $9000 purchase you have the money for but want to spread it out. Making minimum payments but 8 months into the 12 you need or want to use acquire new credit. You already paid this month and it's 30 days til next statement. Why don't they offer a service where they'll send an updated balance?

They can charge for it, and I imagine a few people would use it. Car craps out and you need a new one but have high utilization? Pay it down and get an intrastatement update.

Honestly I think the market for this would be pretty limited, but who knows ? I think some lenders ( can't recall who ) will occasionally do a mid-cycle update based on payments so some may already be doing this.

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

GZG — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 21:26:42 GMT

@tebtengri wrote:
Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

discover does this if you ask

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

ThomasJNewton — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 23:07:36 GMT

Chase will report early if one gets to a zero balance.

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

CorpCrMgr1 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 23:09:39 GMT

The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

tebtengri — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:04:27 GMT

@CorpCrMgr1 wrote:
The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.

True, but that was just one example.

I don't think it would take much extra programming to add the option to their website and apps. Even with a very small proportion using it it seems like it would be easy money for them.

I'm not sure what the cost of updates to the bureaus are. Is it a small fee per update? A flat rate and then fee per update? Do different lenders have different costs negotiated?

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

Anonymalous — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 04:54:55 GMT

@tebtengri wrote:
@CorpCrMgr1 wrote:
The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.
True, but that was just one example.

I don't think it would take much extra programming to add the option to their website and apps. Even with a very small proportion using it it seems like it would be easy money for them.

It would still require a project, a budget, maintenance, integration with all their existing systems, training, and then they'd have to deal with all the complaints from people who expected it affect their score more/etc. I expect the number of people familiar enough with how the credit scoring systems works to understand the benefit in the first place is much smaller than you expect, they're probably a lot more likely to complain and thus increase costs, there's not really much of a case for recurrent customers, it would just confuse the vast majority of the people who don't know how it works, and they can get a much larger almost guaranteed increase by doing something like raising the penalty for late payments by $5 or selected ATM surcharges by $1.

Re: Extra Credit File Updates

tebtengri — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 04:47:57 GMT

That's sad but true.