@Vinjints wrote:
@NoHardLimits wrote:... I occasionally let a large balance report on an account to show real usage to all my other creditors and then make sure that it reports as zero on the next statement to prove that I am a transactor rather than a revolver.
Is this a real thing? Doesn't appear like it would affect scores, but does it actually have a positive affect on perception by other lenders?
The only thing that could affect scores would be if the large balance exceeded 29% utilization on the account or 9% in aggregate. Regarding the behavior by other creditors, there is anecdotal evidence about lenders denying new applications or credit limit increases due to the borrower already having too much unused existing credit. If actual usage and payment information posted for all to see, things would be much more transparent.
@SRT4kid93 wrote:You know it's funny.
i look at my annual credit report. And for some reason all my accounts show last paid $0 so it constantly looks like I'm not paying anything towards my cards.
mu only card that didn't do this was my old credit one card. Which actually combined all the payments I made through out the month. So if I made 4 $500 payments it would say "last paid $2000"
im not sure why this happens? But this should be addressed.
I would prefer having the data show "last paid $2000" because that is actually what was paid during the reported statement cycle.
@dfwxjer wrote:The idea is to have ample credit where you can allow your monthly spending to report without exceeding 9% of your available credit. Paying off balances before the statement cuts is really only useful to manipulate reported utilization for specific scenarios.
Number of accounts with balances is a metric which is affected by paying off balances before statement cuts. Individual account utilization over 29% is also considered. Total nominal balance thresholds also seem to affect some FICO models more than others. VantageScore3 is definitely impacted by total balances independent of utilization %. I realize that this forum deals with FICO scoring, but VantageScore4 will be incorporated into mortgage lending decisions.
Exactly!
combining all the payments made is the best way to go. I can't understand why chase, Amex, and capital one all report $0 as my last payment. I know chase re reports when paying down to $0, so technically the most recent report would show I have a $0 balance. But if my last payment was $2000 and I paid ir down to $0, it still should say my last payment was $2000.
@SRT4kid93 wrote:
Exactly!
combining all the payments made is the best way to go. I can't understand why chase, Amex, and capital one all report $0 as my last payment. I know chase re reports when paying down to $0, so technically the most recent report would show I have a $0 balance. But if my last payment was $2000 and I paid ir down to $0, it still should say my last payment was $2000.
It's not currently a requirement to show detailed payment information. That omission leads to misleading stats about borrower behavior.
@dfwxjer wrote:
@NoHardLimits wrote:
@dfwxjer wrote:The idea is to have ample credit where you can allow your monthly spending to report without exceeding 9% of your available credit. Paying off balances before the statement cuts is really only useful to manipulate reported utilization for specific scenarios.
Number of accounts with balances is a metric which is affected by paying off balances before statement cuts. Individual account utilization over 29% is also considered. Total nominal balance thresholds also seem to affect some FICO models more than others. VantageScore3 is definitely impacted by total balances independent of utilization %. I realize that this forum deals with FICO scoring, but VantageScore4 will be incorporated into mortgage lending decisions.
I let all of my cards, aside from the BCE, report whatever balance I use on the card each month, and my scores are all 800+. It doesn't seem like this metric has much weight to it, but I'm sure it's helped by no individual card getting anywhere above 9% at any given time. Aggregate util is never above 2%.
I get there are situations where one might need that extra score bump, but I'll stick to my principle that it's best to have enough available credit where one doesn't need to worry about balances reporting of their BAU spending. If VantageScore4 is heavily affected by this then I'll be sure to just run all my spend through a single card for a month or two to manipulate the score that way lol.
All of my cards are set to autopay the statement balance. Having to go in and manually keep track of paying off balances before the statement cuts sounds like a giant hassle that I don't have time for.
I'll admit that your behavior is much more sane than mine is. I tend to treat my credit score as a type of on-going competition, as in what can I do to eke out another point or two? No matter what, my scores are also 800+.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:The CC issuers could report monthly payment activity as well as statement balance.
But they do.
For example:
You can see that even while my balance was reporting zero for many consecutive months, the actual non-zero payments were also reported.
This is similar for all my revolving accounts, across many issuers, including Synch and Cap One.
Edit to add: This is my EQ from ACR dot com.
@Patient957 wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:The CC issuers could report monthly payment activity as well as statement balance.
But they do.
For example:
You can see that even while my balance was reporting zero for many consecutive months, the actual non-zero payments were also reported.
This is similar for all my revolving accounts, across many issuers, including Synch and Cap One.
Edit to add: This is my EQ from ACR dot com.
I just checked my ACR reports. As described earlier, lenders are not required to report payment info though some choose to do so. For the lenders on my reports, the detailed payment reporting status is as follows:
Reports monthly payment details -
Navy Federal
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Does not report monthly payment details -
American Express
Capital One
Citibank
Discover
JP Morgan Chase