Warning: Know which balances CC's report to CRAs...

[JonStur]

I have an HSBC MasterCard, with a statement date of the 22nd of every month, and their Visa, with a statement date of the 5th of every month. They both report to the CRAs on the 30th. While checking the CRAs with my Tru Credit acct, I discovered that instead of reporting the statement balances( from the 5th and 22nd), they would report the ACTUAL balance on the 30th for each card. Good thing I don't make major purchases after my statement date thinking that is the balance that gets reported. Apparently they've always done this I just never noticed. Is this how all cards report? I don't really use my other three enough to answer that as they're PIF every month.. Just wondering...

[Anonymous]

All of mine report statement balance.  HSBC is weird like that. I've known people to have that happen to them.

[RHAL]

I have the HSBC best buy card and it reports the balance on the last day of the month. It does not report the statement balance like the rest of my cards do.

[-Furbz-]

yea thats the way hsbc rolls-- blah! lol

[JonStur]

Thanks.. I guess that's just their way of doing things...

[android01]

US Bank reports the last day for the month as well, regardless of statement date. I don't think that many (if any) others due this.

[Travis-84]

Isn't that a good thing?

People on this forum say that for the best fico score you should have 1-9% of your credit utilitized.  The goal is not to make interest payments, so if you can pay it in full and still have it report a balance, that seems like the best idea. 

[llecs]

DW's also has a due date on the 22nd of each month. Mentally, I view HSBC (and Orchard when I had that CC) as having 3 due dates: the actual due date, the statement date, and the last biz day of the month. My #1 goal is a $0 balance, so I always make sure that it reads $0 by the 29th or so. On DW's, I won't even use it from the due date to the last biz day.