Couple questions about my Macy's card and PIF

[Anonymous]

So I opened a Macy's card a few months back ($100) limit, hoping they raise it soon.  Anyways, when I first got the card, I charged 31$ to it online, ordered a jacket on clearance. Paid it off.

They never reported the 31$ to the bureaus (I think I PIFed it too soon, in fear of getting charged interest), so it looks like I havent used the card so its not 1-9%.. not ideal.

So A few days ago I bought 18$ shirt and put it on my macy's card, I want to PIF, but I want it to report that I used the card. When should I PIF so they report the balance and still not get charged interest?

Im not fully understanding how the PIF thing works blah blah.. Sorry for all the questions lol.

anyone?

[oracles]

Hi Torry

First, you dont want the entire $18 dollars to report because then you will have 18% utilization, which is not good. Pay it down to $5 dollars before the next statement cut.( I know it is hard to see when the statement cuts for Macys, so you will have to call them to find out)  Now it will  report $5 dollars and you will have 5% util%. ( $5 divide by $100 dollar credit limit = 5%). Now pay the 5 dollars by the due date so you will not be charged any interest. This is how you play the fico game.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

nice, thank you!!! Gosh this is complicated lol.

just paid 13.82....

Message Edited by torry209 on 01-21-2009 09:54 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

You don't have to have a balance report for the card to be regarded as active. There's a data field on your reports for "highest balance", and almost every CC reports your highest balance ever reported at any point during the cycle. (AmEx is the only exception I know --it uses the highest reported balances. )

So if you look at a full report, you would see that $31 as highest reported balance, even with $0 as the current balance.

I once put $10K plus of new flooring on a card, and then PIF'd before the statement date. The current balance was $0, but the $10K+ reported as well. Dampened my drawers until I realized that it was showing as highest balance, not current balance!

Anyway, even if you don't charge more than $31 in the future, and that remains displaying as your highest balance, the scoring formula "knows" that your card was being used.

You don't want to have all your cards reporting 1-9%, just some of them, as long as you use the others periodically.

[Anonymous]

Good points by Hauling! The trick also is to know when they report balances... When the statement cuts? OR, the end of the month?  Make sure you know that date so you can play the game better.

Does anyone know when Macy's reports?

[cobra19]

For me, Macys reports on the 5th of every month - without fail.

[Anonymous]

Is that your statement date cobra, or did Macy's just pick the 5th for the heck of it?

[mamalawery]

i also started out with $100 limit. i called and asked for an increase. just got $100 more, but that's better than nothing. plus wasn't an inquiry on cbr's.