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Which matters? Minimum Payment, Statement Balance, Current Balance

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Anonymous
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Which matters? Minimum Payment, Statement Balance, Current Balance

Hi experts here, I have a question for a long time. I usually pay current balance. Will pay minimum payment or statement balance have any negative impact on my credit? (Other than that paying minimum payment will let me bear some interest charge.) Thanks.

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
Guava
Established Contributor

Re: Which matters? Minimum Payment, Statement Balance, Current Balance

Hey! How many credit cards do you have?

I've read it'll ding your score if you leave balance on more than half of your cards. And you the balance will add up overtime (since only paid minimum) so that will hurt your utilization


Starting Score (08/11/11): TU08: 643
Current Score: TU08: 741
Goal Score: Stay in the 700s; keep reports clean


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Message 2 of 4
Uborrow-Upay
Valued Contributor

Re: Which matters? Minimum Payment, Statement Balance, Current Balance

Hi, catch-22!    (And BTW, I had a few cocktails with Joseph Heller one night...)

 

This is just my take on it, no Gospel here ...  with AMEX, for instance, I pay once a month on that "Pay by" date, and I always do "current balance" rather than the statement balance.  My AMEX is a charge card, so only a PIF of statement balance would suffice.

 

On other cards (revolvers), I try to PIF, but always pay far over the minimum if I can't pay in full for whatever reason.

 

I think that the minimum, the statement balance or the current balance choices are all tracked by the creditor.  If I was the creditor, I know I'd track those things.

 

Pick 'em, choose 'em.  IDK.

 

If there is any impact at all, it would be internal, I think, aside from any reported utilization.

 

Hope this helps (but, probably not).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 3 of 4
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

, Re: Which matters? Minimum Payment, Statement Balance, Current Balance

Yeah, really two different questions.

Most major creditors have their own internal sytems for evaluating consumers.  Once you are a account holder, it is my understanding that most now run profitability models in addition to risk analysis models to assess profitability, credit limits, BT offers, etc. 

 

From a purely FICO point of view, how much you pay and statement and current balances only enter indirectly.  FICO scores your % util against your credit limit for each account, and thus as balance rises, % uti rises. 

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