I'm sure this isn't news to those of you with experience in credit, but for newbies like myself this could be useful information. I received an alert to credit changes yesterday. I was caught with my pants down when Discover did a mid-cylce report! My util was high as I hadn't paid it yet, knowing my statement closes on the 19th. My scores fell several points. When I called to find out what the frickety-frack was going on, the rep informed me that any changes to my account would trigger a report, including adding an authorized user (which was what happened in my case.) I did a bank push for PIF and the rep assured me Discover would still do my post-statement report on the 20th and that would reflect the $0 balance bringing my utilization back down.
While on the phone with her, I went ahead and added money to my secured deposit. She informed me it would take 8 days to pull from my bank and post to the account, triggering another report because this was an additional change to the account.
I hope this helps someone. Had I known this would happen, I would've paid my account in full, added the additional funds, waited for them to post, then added my adult daughter as an AU. I have so much to learn, but I'm getting there.
