Clarification

[Anonymous]

Hi, Just some clarification regarding my credit cards.

If I have a $0 balance, and am "playing the fico game".  How would I go about making charges, letting a small balance report, and then paying before they charge me a finance charge??

Also, I have recently PIF a credit card.  It has a $0 balance.  I charged approx $100 on it for Xmas gifts, then when I go to pay, the transaction is still "pending". 

PS- Also, how would I know when to ask for CLI's? I've heard Cap one and some others are more generous during the holidays?  Please let me know.

Thanks!

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, Just some clarification regarding my credit cards.

If I have a $0 balance, and am "playing the fico game". How would I go about making charges, letting a small balance report, and then paying before they charge me a finance charge??

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For the timing: do you know when these cards report? --chances are it's on the statement date, which is the date that your monthly statement posts. Generally the due date is 2 or 3 weeks later.

So if your statement date is on the 5th, and your payment due date is the 22nd, charge something before the 1st, giving it time to change from pending to posted, let that balance report, and then pay it off, maybe around the 10th. Same thing if you need to pay it down instead.

Remember that many statement dates wander around --one month it's on the 5th, then the 3rd, then the 6th, and so forth. So give yourself some wiggle room.

You don't need to let every card report. It turns out that your scores do better if only a few report each month. As long as you use each card often enough to keep the CC company happy, you can PIF it as soon as it appears on your online account access, and that way you don't have to keep track of a zillion different due dates.