Can banks tell the difference between PIF and minimum payment?

[Credit12Fico]

I have some CCs and I run the same amount through each card every month and let the statement post, AZEO be damned.  I pay in full on the due date every time. However since my balance on the credit report for each account is around the same number every month, for a given credit account, would the "other" banks (the banks excluding the one I've made the payment to) think I'm carrying a balance month to month? Is there a way for them to know I'm paying in full each month? Do they even care unless there are late payments?

I checked my Experian and Transunion reports, and there is no indication that I'm making any payments (other than not having any late payment derogatories). So would the "other" banks be able to know I'm paying in full, vs making minimum payment if the balance is constant from month to month due to new purchases? Would the banks care either way?

[Anonymous]

Your CRs can show amount paid each month

[Credit12Fico]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Your CRs can show amount paid each month

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Unfortunately mine do not.  My Experian report has a "Paid" column, and it shows $0 Paid for every month on all of the accounts except for 1 lender. My transunion is the same. One lender (the same lender from Experian) shows payment amounts. None of the other ones show any payments and this has been going on for several years according to the reports. These are bankcards from some of the largest banks too so it's not like they are too small to invest in technology that allows them to report payments.... Is it up to lender to submit the payments to the bureau?

[rostrow416]

I don't think they are concerned with your individual payments.   As long as there are no missed payments and your utilization isn't high, it shouldn't really bother them.  Although, they don't like seeing a lot of accounts with balances 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Credit12Fico wrote:

I have some CCs and I run the same amount through each card every month and let the statement post, AZEO be damned.  I pay in full on the due date every time. However since my balance on the credit report for each account is around the same number every month, for a given credit account, would the "other" banks (the banks excluding the one I've made the payment to) think I'm carrying a balance month to month? Is there a way for them to know I'm paying in full each month? Do they even care unless there are late payments?

I checked my Experian and Transunion reports, and there is no indication that I'm making any payments (other than not having any late payment derogatories). So would the "other" banks be able to know I'm paying in full, vs making minimum payment if the balance is constant from month to month due to new purchases? Would the banks care either way?

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No they couldn't tell the difference.

I don't think they would care.

[Face_Value]

@Credit12Fico  I believe the credit reports purchased by lenders are a little more detailed than the ones we recieve as consumers. I believe they are more like the reports you would recieve from annualreports.com. If you notice when you pull your report from them you CAN see amounts paid each and every month. So to answer your question, yes I do believe they can see that information. Do they care though is another question.

[Credit12Fico]

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@Face_Value wrote:

@Credit12Fico  I believe the credit reports purchased by lenders are a little more detailed than the ones we recieve as consumers. I believe they are more like the reports you would recieve from annualreports.com. If you notice when you pull your report from them you CAN see amounts paid each and every month. So to answer your question, yes I do believe they can see that information. Do they care though is another question.

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That's the scary part though. I pulled my reports from Annualcreditreport.com.   Experian is full of zeros in the "Paid" column. Transunion doesn't even have a section that shows payments except for 1 lender on a card I got 2 months ago.

What I do see in both reports is a "scheduled payment" field for each month. This field has a number which is the minimum payment for each lender and it's posted in every month where that card had a non-zero statement balance.

[OmarGB9]

I don't think they can tell, especially if the same balance seems to post month to month. As for whether they care, I would think they would if it looks like your balances across all cards never seem to go down. Even worse if your balances start increasing every month.

[coreysw12]

You could consider paying on the due date the current balance rather than the statement balance on each card every month. Then, the only balances that will get reported are from whatever gets charged in the 2-3 day window between your payment date and the next statement closing date, which is probably substantially less than the balance accrued during a 30-day window. Overall, you'll be paying the same amount of money each month, the payments will only be higher than you're used to for the first month after you switch to this method.

[Shooting-For-800]

Why not just pay them a week early?