Hello,
Thank you, everyone, for your guidance over the past few weeks (here and in the Rebuilding Credit forums).
In order to build my credit (while also repairing), one of the suggestions was to use my CC often during the month and pay the bill off prior to the end of the statement. The goal would be to pay off almost all of the bill and leave just enough (<6%, preferrably just a few dollars) for the bill and then as soon as the bill arrives, pay the remaining amount.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but the idea is to show my CC company (Chase) that I need the credit during the month but also show Chase (and, by default CRAs) that I can pay off the bill responsibly and, hopefully, this will open us up to a CL increase. Up until this month, we didn't do that - we relied almost completely on debit/cash for purchases.
So, my question is: if (almost) everything charged during the month needs to be paid prior to the statement close date, do we have to wait to "right before" the statement close date or can we make a few payments throughout the month? Being new at this, I feel uncomfortable with a large balance on the card, even though I Have the money set aside to pay it.
So, for example: If I charge a little over $2000 during the month, can I pay $1000 halfway through the month and then $1000 again to get me close to zero? Or should I wait till right before the closing date and make a lump sum payment of $2000?
Thanks in advance...I know this might be a newbie question but I can't seem to find a definite answer in the group when I searched. I am nervous we will mess up and the money feels wrong sitting in my account...just trying to balance my anxiety with the strategy! 
I will be interested in seeing other replies, but I will say, I tend to make many payments throughout the month, and I've done pretty well with CLIs and general profile growth. I am not sure if it's technically better to do it as one payment, but, multiple payments have not caused me any problems. Good question!
I don't think the timing matters, nor do I think one versus multiple monthly payments matters either. Just FYI, I've never used the 'pay throughout the month' method, or any other method except paying when my bill arrives; my scores are generally in the 820s, so my method seems to work pretty well. 
I know there are times it may be necessary to pay multiple times during a month, e.g., a card with a very low limit isn't really usable unless you keep paying it down. But barring that type of scenario, I don't see the point of paying anything but one payment per month, after receiving your bill. In my opinion and experience, it's making payments on time and conistently that are the most important factors creditors consider. I never, ever pay just the minimum payment. It's a good idea to schedule payments far enough before their due date that even if there's some kind of hiccup along the way, there's still time to get the payment in before it's late.
As long as you always pay your bills before they're due, and always pay at least the minimum payment (preferably more), one payment per month should be fine. Since I don't, and never have used the multiple-payments thing, I don't have any personal data to point to for its pros and cons. I just know it sounds like unnecessary extra work to me.
Thank you very much for this insight! It's obvious from your signature you have some experience with this and I'm happy to listen to your guidance I'm looking forward to hearing what the consensus will be - I don't think it will matter too much. I feel like if it *did* matter, there it would be in one of the FAQs or others would have asked
Thank you again!
Thank you! This is very helfpul - it's good to hear from you and KJinNC that both methods work and have no negative effects.
In our case, I think it's mostly my anxiety about the process. After purchasing out house 8 years ago, we transitioned to 95% cash/debit transations. We didn't realize the important of having a good credit line - out credit was upper 700s at that point. Unfortunately, we hit a bit bump in the road and are just digging outselves out of our 2017-2019 slump. We are on the way back but I think, had we known more about the importance of building a credit line and our options when we found ourselves with only 1 income for a while, we would be in a hole...just not so far down in the hole.
I had a few charge offs that I'm not proud of. I paid almost all of them off but, in the meantime, I'm trying to rebuild. Since we found ourselves in trouble w/ CC after an unexpected life event, I worry it will happen again (even though we are better prepared this time around). The idea of keeping anything on the charge card makes me a bit nervous. I'm sure I will get over it - it's still new, this is our first month trying this method of chargein it up and paying it down. I hope that, soon, it will be easier! Right now, my mind is on the money and now spending it. I did take a chunk of money from the bills we are charging (electric, phone, etc) and put it aside in a separate account so I have it ready to apply to the bill.
Thank you for the advice - I will definitely schedule the payment in advance. this month, my husband and I are hyper aware of the statement closing date b/c we want to pay down the charges before they are on the bill (to keep the utilization under 6%). It is extra work so, if we don't have to do multiple payments, I won't! The only thing it would be doing is calming my nerves
Thank you again!!
@JM761 wrote:Thank you! This is very helfpul - it's good to hear from you and KJinNC that both methods work and have no negative effects.
In our case, I think it's mostly my anxiety about the process. After purchasing out house 8 years ago, we transitioned to 95% cash/debit transations. We didn't realize the important of having a good credit line - out credit was upper 700s at that point. Unfortunately, we hit a bit bump in the road and are just digging outselves out of our 2017-2019 slump. We are on the way back but I think, had we known more about the importance of building a credit line and our options when we found ourselves with only 1 income for a while, we would be in a hole...just not so far down in the hole.
I had a few charge offs that I'm not proud of. I paid almost all of them off but, in the meantime, I'm trying to rebuild. Since we found ourselves in trouble w/ CC after an unexpected life event, I worry it will happen again (even though we are better prepared this time around). The idea of keeping anything on the charge card makes me a bit nervous. I'm sure I will get over it - it's still new, this is our first month trying this method of chargein it up and paying it down. I hope that, soon, it will be easier! Right now, my mind is on the money and now spending it. I did take a chunk of money from the bills we are charging (electric, phone, etc) and put it aside in a separate account so I have it ready to apply to the bill.
Thank you for the advice - I will definitely schedule the payment in advance. this month, my husband and I are hyper aware of the statement closing date b/c we want to pay down the charges before they are on the bill (to keep the utilization under 6%). It is extra work so, if we don't have to do multiple payments, I won't! The only thing it would be doing is calming my nerves
Thank you again!!
You're very welcome!
And thank you for the expanded information about your situation. Look, I've been there. And it sucks. But it sounds like you're doing a good job of pulling yourselves up and out of the financial abyss you were in, so you're definitely on the right track. I understand the anxiety at seeing a balance on credit cards. Really I do. Once you've been down financially, it's hard to shake that feeling of uncertainty, that constant nagging feeling that you're going to fall into the abyss again. But as you continue your rebuilding process, the anxiety should lessen. Of course, that assumes that you're socking away 'rainy day' money--like buckets of it!--and have learned the lessons financial disaster teach us. I know I did. I figured out what went wrong and then made sure it could never happen again. I'm happy to say that my unwavering commitment to never being down again really paid off. A few years ago I was hit with a near-fatal illness, hospitalized for six months, and ended up with out-of-pocket bills in excess of $100,000. Thanks to the lessons learned--and acted on--earlier, I came through [financially] with flying colors!
Continued success and good luck on your journey!
Hey there, you specified that you're talking about a Chase credit card... well Chase has a peculiarity: they report everytime your balance reaches 0.
This means you could let your CC report full, so that Chase "sees" your usage, and then pay it off immediately the next day. Which, if you played it right with timing on charges, will cause it to show 0 and Chase will report it AGAIN. It will cause your score to yo-yo a bit, but it literally fixes itself completely when the 0 reports.
This is also why you can't really use Chase cards as the "except one" if you're trying to do AZEO.
Biz - 
@W261w261 wrote:I'll just toss this in here although it's not quite on point. Multiple payments mean multiple opportunities to bounce one. Reading the posts on here, the warnings about this are pretty dire. So be sure to keep a good padding on the bank account, or have o/d protection.
Yes, good comment.
OP, what is your credit limit on this Chase card?
Which bank has your checking account that you are using to pay the Chase card?
If this is your only card, with no plans to apply for more cards for some time, then the effort involved in multiple payments through the month isn't really helping your credit. It may give some peace of mind, as long as no bounced / boloxed payments to Chase.
Be careful also with these multiple payments. It could get your balance to zero, that may update ( as Chase does this mid-month ) and then you'll have the No Cards Reporting score penalty for a time.
Basically I would not rush into a rapid series of payments. Make sure you pay once a month by the due date, and give yourself some time to get into a rhythm with the card management.
@JM761 wrote:Hello,
Thank you, everyone, for your guidance over the past few weeks (here and in the Rebuilding Credit forums).
In order to build my credit (while also repairing), one of the suggestions was to use my CC often during the month and pay the bill off prior to the end of the statement. The goal would be to pay off almost all of the bill and leave just enough (<6%, preferrably just a few dollars) for the bill and then as soon as the bill arrives, pay the remaining amount.
Using a Chase card as the card you're counting on to report a balance is complicated, because whenever a Chase account is paid down to zero, Chase reports it immediately within a day or two. So with Chase you have to be sure you have a new balance ready to report before you pay off the old stuff.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but the idea is to show my CC company (Chase) that I need the credit during the month but also show Chase (and, by default CRAs) that I can pay off the bill responsibly and, hopefully, this will open us up to a CL increase. Up until this month, we didn't do that - we relied almost completely on debit/cash for purchases.
So, my question is: if (almost) everything charged during the month needs to be paid prior to the statement close date, do we have to wait to "right before" the statement close date or can we make a few payments throughout the month?
You can make them throughout the month.
Being new at this, I feel uncomfortable with a large balance on the card, even though I Have the money set aside to pay it.
So, for example: If I charge a little over $2000 during the month, can I pay $1000 halfway through the month and then $1000 again to get me close to zero? Or should I wait till right before the closing date and make a lump sum payment of $2000?
Thanks in advance...I know this might be a newbie question but I can't seem to find a definite answer in the group when I searched. I am nervous we will mess up and the money feels wrong sitting in my account...just trying to balance my anxiety with the strategy!
