Need help getting CC to report...can I change statement date?

[compassion101]

I have a 5/3 optimum card (long story...I don't really want it anymore)

Anyhow I am trying to optimize my score to make applications this week (first time in 2 years) and so I paid off this card (my cable bill gets charged auto to it) before the statement date. However I got hit with an annual fee on the statement date (which I had forgotten about) so they reported the balance. I paid the AF and called them to get them to rereport but they say they can't do (policy). I asked them if they could change my statement/billing date and they say they can't do that either. Don't they have to offer me different statement/payment date options by law?

Anyhow escalated it to 3rd manager level who is supposed to call me back tomorrow. I think I won't get anywhere but just wanted to see if I am right that they must offer me options for billing dates by law, and if anyone has any other advice to convince them to help me get $0 balance reported.

[Anonymous]

I'm not so sure if that is actually a law?  I do know that most of time they would be willing to work with you as long as you are current on your payments and would think especially if you had a zero balance.  Let us know if they call you back would be intrested in hearing what they say!

[DaveSignal]

you could,

a) wait until next month, and then you will have a $0 balance

b) unless the AF uses a significant portion of your available credit, your utilization is still probably pretty good, so apply for new cards anyway

c) dispute the balance with the CRAs online.  This will get your current balance reported, but could also cause other issues.

[compassion101]

Couldn't get them to budge. I don't think they actually need to let us choose a date by law, but most companies seem to offer a choice. The thing that ticked me off was them insisting that they couldn't report the current balance by law, which we know isn;t true...as long as the info is accurate they can report whenever they want, they just choose not to ever make mid-statement reports as a company policy. Just kinda annoying that first, second, and third level management thinks it's because of "the law" instead of because of company policy. Someone correct me if I am wrong here.

Either way I got them to credit me back the annual fee at least. I am optimistic that the balance reporting won't make a difference in my apps, but I prefer to optimize. The AF won't affect my overall util by much at all, but it obv effects # of cards reporting a balance.