Any benefit(s) to multiple CC payments over one?

[Anonymous]

For me, it's how I budget. I don't like that I charge a card and have money sitting there until the end of the month. For me, I'm not being 100 percent honest about my budget. It makes me think that the money is still there to spend.

So I charge my card (purchase has to be budgeted), go home make the full payment (if allowed) and then go into my budget and input expense. I'm a stickler when it comes to my personal finances and the savings goals I want to reach. 

This is the only reason why I do this. My credit score is in the 760s so I don't have to worry about my score.

[Anonymous]

I think it's a personal preference. I do both. Since I no longer micromanage my accounts, if a creditor does a SP mid-cycle I'm okay with it.

[brother7]

For me, once a statement cuts, I schedule payment on the Payment Due By date for the New Balance. In other words, I PIF on the Payment Due date.

I do this for consistency and also because I know my bank balance is enough to cover this future payment. My CLs are high enough so that I don't have to worry about reaching the limit within a single month.

For the young people I advise who are new to credit, I advise them a little differently.

Once a statement cuts, they make an online payment for the New Balance the very next day. In other words, they PIF the day after the statement cuts.

I advise newcomers to credit to do this to instill good habits from the start. I try to get them into the mindset of using a credit card like a delayed debit card. And once the statement cuts, to pay it off ASAP.

The only time when I make multiple payments within a single cycle is when I'm about to apply for new credit and want to manipulate the % utilizaton that's reported to the CRAs. In this case, I make sure all cards EXCEPT one report a zero balance. This requires paying any outstanding balance BEFORE the statement date, then refraining from using that card till after the statement cuts.

Then for the one card that will report a balance, before the statement date, I pay just enough of the outstanding balance such that the remaining balance is 1% of the credit limit for that card. That way, all of my cards will report 0% utilization except for the one card that reports 1% utilization. I use Credit Karma to monitor when all this gets reported to the CRAs. Then I apply for the new credit card.

I've been using the above method over and over, for me and the young people I advise, every 6 months like clockwork and it's worked like a charm.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
It doesn't make a difference unless you want a CLI. Cap1 likes you to do one big payment vs multiple small payments. And for takeshi (whenever you want to come correct me) this is based on my personal experience with 4 cards from them and multiple user experiences. 2 of them I did smaller payments and two I just did one big lump sum and the two with the lump sum went up by $3k on one and $8k on the other and the 2 smaller payment ones didn't budge. Same cards

---

Come on 2011XTERROR, Don't rely on generalizations.  It's your entire credit portfolio that is considered.  Don't make assumptions.  This is an extremely common topic.  Don't overlook existing threads and discussions as a resource.

Interesting that you've had more success with Capital One when doing single large monthly payments.  When you say it doesn't make a difference unless you want a CLI, what do you mean? 

In about 30 days I'm looking to ask for my first Amex CLI.  This month I was debating on several small payments or one large one at the end.  My hesitation in saving it all for 1 large payment is that I plan to run up around 40-50% utilization on the card this month.  If for some reason I'm SPd at the point of having utilization that high, and that SP is what is used when I request a CLI, I would think my results would be much worse than if it showed me at a 0 balance.  Not sure if this rationale makes any sense or if I'm just overthinking it.

[takeshi74]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Any benefit(s) to multiple CC payments over one?

---

Not in and of itself from a credit scoring/assessment perspective.  It's the reported Revolving Utilization that matters.  It doesn't really matter how you get there.  I only make 1 payment a month per account and my FICO 8's are in the 800's.

There can certainly be subjective benefits if multiple payments better suits an individual's account management style.

[Anonymous]

I'm not relying on generalizations and that came from experience and the many topics on this. Thanks for reading

[Anonymous]

I still want to know what happens if a creditor soft pulls you mid-cycle when you have 40% utilization say 2-3 weeks before you request a CLI.  Are they going to use that SP and your 40% utilization in their CLI request decision?

Perhaps this varies by creditor.  Do some creditors take an instant SP at the time a CLI is requested, or do they all go off of the last one they have on file?

[kdm31091]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I still want to know what happens if a creditor soft pulls you mid-cycle when you have 40% utilization say 2-3 weeks before you request a CLI.  Are they going to use that SP and your 40% utilization in their CLI request decision?

Perhaps this varies by creditor.  Do some creditors take an instant SP at the time a CLI is requested, or do they all go off of the last one they have on file?

---

The problem is a lot of these questions have no real answer. I get that nobody wants to hear they are generalizing, but all we can really rely on are anecdotes which have a lot of different things going on -- different profiles, different scores, etc.

I sometimes pay multiple times and other times I just wait. I don't feel there's any major benefit to paying several times unless it helps you budget better.

Use your cards, make your payments however you see fit, and ask for CLIs when/if they're needed. I have never noticed a difference in a CLI being approved no matter what I did or didn't do. The only thing I have noticed is that most creditors want to see that you "need" a CLI if we're talking about a manual request. Hard to get a CLI if you use your 5k limit for a pack of gum every week. Again though that's just my generalization on the matter. Ultimately as long as the bill is paid I don't think creditors read into these things as much as we tend to.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the post above, but I still feel it would be nice to know if a creditor is going to use a previous SP or an instant SP at the time of a CLI request.

[Anonymous]

I figured out when my statement cuts are all scheduled. I PIF 2 days before statement cut just to be sure that it reports 0. (Well hopefully ) I dont wait till I get the bill... I make sure that I'm on top of it before they report my UTI. Which I'm hoping I'm guestimating correctly ~ that you make the payment before statement cuts....