It is difficult to understand how credit cards and reporting work when first getting started in the credit game, especially when using dates as abstract as payment due date, statement close date, and reporting date.
So to make things less abstract let's assume that a CC has a statement date of the 1st. Whatever balance is on the card as of the 1st will be the statement balance and in turn will be the balance reported to the bureas. The goal is to have this be the non-zero amount ($10-$20 for maximum scoring purposes).
We will then assume the payment due date is the 28th. This is the date that you will want to pay your card by to avoid any late fees. To avoid interest you will want to pay the full statement balance by the 28th.
Whatever balance is left on the card by the next statement date of the 1st will get reported to the bureaus as the new card balance. If you make additional charges and want your balance reporting to be lower then you will need to make an additional payment between the 28th and the 1st to reduce the new statement balance.
Some caveats, and some things that may add more confusion, many people on this forum recommend paying your statement balance as soon as it reports. For me, this is more work than necessary and it does not provide any tangible benefit. As long as the statement balance is paid by the due date (the end of the grace period) then you don't pay interest.
Some cards, I believe those issued by Chase, will report off statement and will report ANY time you reduce the balance to 0.
Reporting date, in my experience, is always the same as statement date. However, the reporting date is not always the date at which it shows on the credit report. I get daily Experian reports and I just had a card report it's new balance today (the 13th) but the report date was the same as the statement date (the 6th).
