PIF Question

[IncrsCreditScore1]

I need to work on having just one card report a small balance and the other showing no balance.  My brain is not functioning correctly today.  My question is do I need to pay the cards off before their cutoff dates in order for zero balances to show?

[AAstra]

Yes. If you don't pay it to zero before the cutoff date (payment due date) then the balance unpaid will report as your balance for that month. I have several cards that I pay to zero every month and leave a balance on my Discover.

[CountryLivin]

I have a bunch of cards that I PIF right before the cut off date, that way when they report it reports a zero balance.Whatever balance is left on the cards on the cut off dates will be what is reported to the CRA.

[IncrsCreditScore1]

@AAstra:  I have always believed that the cutoff date  and payment due date are two separate dates.  Is that not true?

[Loquat]

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@IncrsCreditScore wrote:

@AAstra:  I have always believed that the cutoff date  and payment due date are two separate dates.  Is that not true?

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You're correct..your cycle date and due date are different.  

[Anonymous]

Right. Two different dates. example: most of my chase cards payment is due 6th, statement closes 9th. If you aren't using in between, then you can pay by due date (which will stay zero reported by statement date). If you're wanting to use the cards as much as possible, you may need to pull another payment. 

The thing that threw me when I was switching over to trying to get most to report zero was that I didn't realize that if you pay to zero on a regular basis and the statement reports zero, the due date is irrelevant. Example: my RC reported zero last month so it says zero min pay due by 6/6 and zero statement balance. If I want to keep it that way, I just have to pay the outstanding balance by the 9th. 

[RonM21]

Once you figure out how to due this, and know the difference between the dates, you start planning for it like clockwork. It's amazing how clueless I was when I got my first card in 2013. I never suffered a late payment or anything, but had to research in order to figure out how it all worked.

[IncrsCreditScore1]

Thanks to all of you.  From the info you have provided, I think I can determine when to pay my bills so that the credit report shows 0 balance.  I always pay before the due date, but an amount due always shows on the credit reports.  So I will try paying before the cutoff date and see what happens.  Again, thank you all.

[UncleB]

I might be mistaken about this, but I recall reading on here a while back that U.S. Bank is an outlier... they are said to report to the credit bureaus at the end of the month regardless of the statement close date.

If you have an account with U.S. Bank it might be worth at least checking into... and if I'm mistaken or it's changed feel free to let me know (that's how we learn!) 

[driftless]

I just PIF on the due date. Sometimes a charge will change from pending to posted between the due date and report date, and that is fine.