I'm curious if someone can help answer this. I'm in the market for a new car, I've pounded away about 13k out of 15k of credit card debt to get my credit score in line for a new car loan. I want to go into the bank to apply for loans when my credit score is adjusted to my new credit card payments.
1) So. My credit card closed out today (Bank Of America), and I've noticed over the past few months that Credit Karma updates my credit score a few days following the last date for my credit card statement. Close out date being 6/12/13, I usually have Credit Karma update within a couple days following that. Does this mean that Bank of America is reporting to the credit bureaus a couple days after the close out?
2) I will be paying off the remainder of my credit card this Friday, and I missed the close out date so I'll likely need to wait for the next close out date 7/12, before going to apply for loans. My current utilization is 23% of my total credit, after this Friday it will be down to 6-7%. I assume this would have a nice impact on my credit score, and would be worth waiting to apply for loans instead of being impatient and going as soon as possible?
Credit Karma has my current score at 738 with 46% Utilization, it will update to my 23% utilization in the next couple days. Credit Sesame has me at 746 with the same 46% utilization, and won't update until the beginning of July.
3) Would it be worth it to get the Score Alert to monitor when the credit bureaus actually report, or will Credit Karma play that role just as well? I guess I'm wondering if MyFICO score alert would notice credit bureau updates faster than Credit Karma does. I think I read somewhere that Bank of America updates faster than others, so I'm not sure if Credit Karma is just updating on a automated schedule or what.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: This will be my first car, so I'm itching to get it. I've relied on public transport for quite some time and would very much like to get a vehicle asap. That being said, I'm not stupid enough to jump into it blindly and will of course wait to get the best available APR% through ensuring my credit score is as good as it can be.
Another question I have about credit utilization and the impact it has on credit reports...
Global utilization vs specific card utilization.
I know the rule of thumb is to have under 10% of your global credit used. How does utilization for a specific card impact the credit report? Will having the card itself under 10% (example, 7k card CL with a $600 balance, with a total CL of 15k for all cards) as opposed (or in addition) to having the total of all credit cards at under 10%?