@dryanaz80 wrote:Maybe this is already a known trend, so I apologize in advance; as I've begun my rebuild journey I've been very careful and mindful to know exactly when my balance reports and for the last two months, for two cards specifically -- Citi Diamond Preferred and PayPal CashBack -- where my utilization/balance is literally reporting everyday. I have a $300 SL on my PayPal but it's also an everyday spend because of the cash back so I'll make purchases and pay off immediately so that it closes with a zero balance. This last month it reported from around $250 to being PIF before statement cut and utilization dropped and score improved. I assumed I'd have the next month to do my usual shopping and earning and paying off but it reported a $47 balance on 5/18 and I looked today and score went down because balance is up to $177.
is this unique to this card or is this a trend where utilization will be reported more frequently/arbitrarily making it insanely frustrating to try to smartly use the cards but not get penalized because they keep reporting each balance change.
Would love to get feedback on if this is nothing new and if that's the case. What steps have you taken to try to mitigate this?
Thanks in advance everyone!!
As near as I can tell, based on my experience with 2 Citibank cards, they report like anybody else -- once a month. And the reported balance is the statement balance.
As @Slabenstein points out, Synchrony is completely wild and unpredictable about reporting. The only way to ensure that your PayPal card never reports a balance greater than 28% is to make sure it never has a balance greater than 28%.
The Paypal MC is issued by Synchrony, which is known to off-cycle report. There's nothing you can really do about it other than not use the card, but it's also the case that for all currently used FICO versions utilization and balances are snapshot metrics that only score what is currently reported at the time your file is pulled. That means that the score fluctuations from the random reporting don't really matter unless you have an important app coming up, and if you do you can set the PPMC aside temporarily if you're concerned that they might affect your terms or approval.
@rostrow416 wrote:I got hit last month by Synchrony (on the Mastercard and my Amazon store card). Spending was a bit higher since mother's day and several birthdays coming up. Synchrony decides to report 3x last month as my balances went up (still under 30%, but annoying).
They sure don't report so fast when I pay balances down.
Ain't that the truth!
