Extra Credit File Updates

[tebtengri]

Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

Say you had a 0% intro, made a $9000 purchase you have the money for but want to spread it out. Making minimum payments but 8 months into the 12 you need or want to use acquire new credit. You already paid this month and it's 30 days til next statement. Why don't they offer a service where they'll send an updated balance? 

They can charge for it, and I imagine a few people would use it. Car craps out and you need a new one but have high utilization? Pay it down and get an intrastatement update.

[pizzadude]

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@tebtengri wrote:

Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

Say you had a 0% intro, made a $9000 purchase you have the money for but want to spread it out. Making minimum payments but 8 months into the 12 you need or want to use acquire new credit. You already paid this month and it's 30 days til next statement. Why don't they offer a service where they'll send an updated balance? 

They can charge for it, and I imagine a few people would use it. Car craps out and you need a new one but have high utilization? Pay it down and get an intrastatement update.

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Honestly I think the market for this would be pretty limited, but who knows ?   I think some lenders ( can't recall who ) will occasionally do a mid-cycle update based on payments so some may already be doing this. 

[GZG]

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@tebtengri wrote:

Is there a reason lenders haven't monetized (or offered for free) updates outside the normal statement dates?

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discover does this if you ask

[ThomasJNewton]

Chase will report early if one gets to a zero balance.

[CorpCrMgr1]

The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.

[tebtengri]

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@CorpCrMgr1 wrote:

The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.

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True, but that was just one example. 

I don't think it would take much extra programming to add the option to their website and apps. Even with a very small proportion using it it seems like it would be easy money for them.

I'm not sure what the cost of updates to the bureaus are. Is it a small fee per update? A flat rate and then fee per update? Do different lenders have different costs negotiated? 

[Anonymalous]

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@tebtengri wrote:

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@CorpCrMgr1 wrote:

The utilization wouldn't be that high if you've made eight of the twelve payments.

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True, but that was just one example. 

I don't think it would take much extra programming to add the option to their website and apps. Even with a very small proportion using it it seems like it would be easy money for them.

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It would still require a project, a budget, maintenance, integration with all their existing systems, training, and then they'd have to deal with all the complaints from people who expected it affect their score more/etc. I expect the number of people familiar enough with how the credit scoring systems works to understand the benefit in the first place is much smaller than you expect, they're probably a lot more likely to complain and thus increase costs, there's not really much of a case for recurrent customers, it would just confuse the vast majority of the people who don't know how it works, and they can get a much larger almost guaranteed increase by doing something like raising the penalty for late payments by $5 or selected ATM surcharges by $1.

[tebtengri]

That's sad but true.