Credit card reporting and FICO management questions

[slund5499]

Not sure where to post this question....

I am not new to credit, but I am trying to understand and figure out the reporting times for FICO scoring management.

When a creditor issues the monthly statement with a due date (usually 2 weeks from issue), when does the account report to the credit bureaus and what get's reported.

Does the statement balance get reported or the balance on the account at the time they report?

Account closes on the 20th of the month with the statment balance. Nextx payment is due on the 2nd. Payment is made before the due date.

What get's reported to the credit bureau.

Micro managing the fico scoring by playing the shell game with staements and due date.....while paying off smaller accounts with the snowball plan.

Any imput on reporting?

[Gunnar419]

Nearly all cc companies report just after the statement date and they report the balance that's on the statement.

There are a few exceptions, like companies that report whatever the balance is on the first of the month, but the general rule is that the CRAs see only the amount that's on your monthly statement.

[slund5499]

Thanks.

I just need to put the due dates and statement cut dates on a spreadsheet. Then I can manage the shell game on bigger accounts while I pay off the smaller ones.

It seems that small credit line balance changes have more impact on FICO scoring.

I have seem my score go up and down 2-8 points when balances on my $300 creidt line accounts go up or down by more than 30%.

Balance increase of $109 nets a 8 point drop. A balance decrease of $120 increases score by 6 points. Just a real funky algorythum used.

[takeshi74]

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@slund5499 wrote:

Does the statement balance get reported or the balance on the account at the time they report?

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It's always the balance on the date reported.  For those that report on statement date it's the statement balance since statement balance is the balance on statement date.

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@slund5499 wrote:

It seems that small credit line balance changes have more impact on FICO scoring.

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Think of it in terms of utilization.  It's easier to drastically affect utilization for accounts with lower limits.  E.g. $100 of a $10,000 CL is only 1% while the same amount for a $300 CL is 33%.

[RobertEG]

That is the main problem with low credit limit cards..... they require a bit more attention to ensure their individual % utils dont jump significantly.

[MercyMe]

This is good news!  Thanks for posting it, though I'm so rather late reading it.  I've been wondering why huge payments to my higher limit cards is having little effect on my credit score, whereas double payments on the low limit cards brings my score up a point or two. Now I know.