Getting punished for using credit card.

[Anonymous]

Hello All

Just woke up for a very disappointed news, I've been Gardening my credit for few months now, 65k CL on CC's , 1% Credit utilization last month, and a score of 752 on Fico 8 thru Credit Check Total, i used my Amex (16k ) in the last couple weeks buying raw material for my business, my bill cycle hasn't come up yet, but apparently CCT updates comes up between 24 and 27 and now my score dropped to 733, almost 20 points drop for using my CC? i haven't even receive the bill to make a payment yet from my CC!!  So am I getting punished for using my CC? On CCT site, where says "See all Factors Impacting your Credit":

What's Helping your Score?                                                     What's hurting your score?

*Long Credit History                                                                  *High credit Usage

*Recent Credit card use

*Substantial installment loan repayment

**bleep**? If i use it helps but also hurts? I'm confused, I'm trying to understand this, anyone?  Thanks

Eddie

[Anonymous]

What do you mean you have not receive the bill yet (via mail?)? Are you not managing your Amex online? What is the reported balance and reported date for Amex on CCT? If you have online access to Amex, what does it say when you log in, has the statement been cut yet?

[Anonymous]

Hello Oldman

I do manage online, what i meant is my due is on May 19, i always pay the amount due. Report Balance $16.443, status update 04/01 at CCT. At Amex when i open it says, Statement balance $16.443, due on May 19. I don't understand, they are reporting a balance on my Credit that has been due yet!!!

[Anonymous]

Right on top of list of current posted/pending transactions, it should say $xx.xx since Date1 (Next Closing Date : Date2) What is date1 and date2?

[Anonymous]

$1.144.88 since Apr 25  (next closing date May 25)

[Anonymous]

Is this a revolver or charge card? What is the CL if it's a revolver?

[Anonymous]

Revolver

[Anonymous]

$50k credit line

[Anonymous]

That's a nice credit line.

Ok let's go back to the basics. There are 2 import dates within a cycle, the statement date and the due date. The statement date is the day the system captures the total charges in the prior 30/31 days, which is your statement balance, the statement balance is what is reported to the credit bureaus. Then you have due date, about 25 days (grace period) after the statement date, the day you must pay in full to avoid paying interest, the due date has absolutely nothing to do with reporting to the bureaus.

Now let's apply that to your situation, you charged a total of 16k between 3/25 and 4/25, the total was captured on your statement date (4/25) and reported to the CRAs, the fact that you don't have to pay the statement balance until 5/19 (due date) has nothing to do with reporting to CRAs. If you didn't want to report that amount, you have to pay before the statement date (4/25). The reason your score took a hit is because your UTI is no longer 1%, it's 32% (16k/50k) for Amex and 25% (16k/65k) overall.

[Anonymous]

The due date doesn't matter when it comes to utilization reporting.  For that purpose, the only date that matters is the "statement date" -- the date that most creditors report a balance to the bureaus.

So you made the mistake of not paying down your utilization before your statement cut.  

Yes, running that high of a balance is enough to lower your FICO score by a significant amount.  Had you paid it down before the statement cut, it would have reported a lot less, and your score would have changed by a smaller amount.