When to make CC payments? First CC advice.

[SouthJamaica]

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@myfavoritehue wrote:

I don't plan on using the card again for a while. That's why I'm asking. Its my understanding that its best for cards to be "active".

Just for clarification, when you receive your statement, your balance has already been reported, right?

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If you don't want the card to close, you need to use it at least once every couple of months.

It doesn't matter to your scores if the account is more active or less active.

[Trudy]

US Bank is one creditor that doesn't report the balance that appears on your statement if charges are made before their report date which most believe the last day of the month and has proven to be this for me.  However, I'm testing this as I changed my due date from the 22nd to the 28th to see what happens as I made a charge on the 1st.

[Anonymous]

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@Trudy wrote:

US Bank is one creditor that doesn't report the balance that appears on your statement if charges are made before their report date which most believe the last day of the month and has proven to be this for me.  However, I'm testing this as I changed my due date from the 22nd to the 28th to see what happens as I made a charge on the 1st.

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Interested in what you find on US Bank statement cutoff and end of the month credit bureau reporting. Changed my statement cutoff to the 1st (more or less) and they stick to reporting the last business day of the month (so it appears) showing up after that date in the bureaus with Trans Union taking about ten calendar days to reflect the report.

[Revelate]

USBank is explicitly end of month for me on my auto loan.

Statement closes 22nd in my case; guess it landed 5/4 this past month maybe tomorrow it will show up heh; not expecting a change to my installment ratios but stranger things have happened breakpoint has to be somewhere darn it.

[Trudy]

Interesting @dinosaur

Are you saying with a statement date of the 1st the balance from that will not be reported until the end of that month?  Have you tested to see if charges between the 1st and day before the last day show up as reported with a 1st stmt date?

I normally received the alert for my statement on the 26th, 4 days after my due date.  However, I've not yet received my May statement alert although the due date for May was still the 22nd but I was told the change would take effect after this.  Will see....

[Revelate]

Trudy: that’s how it works with every other end of month reporter (DCU et al.)

Unless USBank does mid-cycle updates which I haven’t seen nor read of, that’s what would happen.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@myfavoritehue wrote:

I don't plan on using the card again for a while. That's why I'm asking. Its my understanding that its best for cards to be "active".

Just for clarification, when you receive your statement, your balance has already been reported, right?

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If you don't want the card to close, you need to use it at least once every couple of months.

It doesn't matter to your scores if the account is more active or less active.

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To be very very safe, yes, but for many issuers that is a lot of overkill.

[Trudy]

Looks like regardless of statement close date, US Bank still reported balance as of the 31st. 6/1 charge was not reported.  But this was in the midst of the change with May's due date still being 5/22 but statement was later and now due date shows 8/28.  One more month to confirm.  But I believe you Revelate

[Anonymous]

Sounds like my Cap1 card,  my statement closes on the 28 and I use for a cellphone bill of $61 and pay it off before close. On the 29th I charge $61 and for March and April, it use to report $61 to the 3 and some are reporting $0, but noone has mentioned payment history and that to me matters the most, as you dont have to carry a balance to show this. 

[sarge12]

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@myfavoritehue wrote:

Just received my first statement from a new credit card and want to be sure that I am maximizing the benefit I will receive from making payments.

I have a $5,000 limit and right now my full balance is $51. The minimum payment due is $30 and I am not sure if I should:

A) pay the minimum balance to stretch out the potential benefit to my credit score

B) pay it all in full now to get the biggest benefit

C) make two separate payments in the same statement date.

I’m not worried about interest this time around because my utilization, and my balance, is so low.

Please help!

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I will just agree with others who have piped in...A) There is no benefit at all on credit scores by carrying a balance, ever...period. Credit card issuers would love for you to believe there was, so you will pay interest. Note my scores, and I have not paid any interest on credit cards in 15 years and do not plan to ever do so again. I will add the caveat, that taking the steps to be a strict transactor can, and in my case has, led to CLI denials, especially if you do C) Many, including myself, make multiple payments in a month, especially we often PIF before the statement cuts to maximise the credit score benefits of very low utilization...even though utilization is a point in time metric which carries no history. Doing so may lead to not getting CLI's due to not having a history of using much of the existing credit limit with that credit card issuer. 

That leaves us with B) There is never a logical reason credit score wise to not always pay the full statement balance in full before the due date...not 1...ever!...There can be a benefit to waiting until a statement is generated to show usage. PIF before a statement cuts every month can and does make the card appear to not be getting any use on the credit report even if it has heavy usage. That is because the credit report shows highest statement balance, and if you always PIF before the statement cuts every month the highest statement balance shown on the report is 0. I do not go to the trouble to do the following, but it is the best strategy....PIF all cards except 1 before the statement generates, causing only 1 card to show a small balance, which you should pay off before the due date. Second, and this part I do not do, is to rotate which card shows a balance on a statement. Doing that will show usage of every card, and no card will have 0 as the highest statement balance.