Accounts With Balances

[smallfry]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

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smallfry wrote to writemikep:

So in essence you are paying your bills for the most part the old fashioned way. Either by check out of checking account or an ACH. Not even taking advantage of the float the cards give. 

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Just to comment: I sat down and figured out one day how much I was losing by not delaying payment for two weeks, until closer to the due date. With interest rates the way they are, and the admittedly pitiful balances I have anyway, it was quite literally pennies per month.

Now if I ever got frisky and loaded up those four higher-CL CC's, the float might make sense. But since I'd be having a nervous breakdown anyway, I don't think that the 5 bucks or whatever would do me much good.

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Of course there's no interest today on your money. But on the other hand why bother using them if you're not concerned with losing the lines if you are going to pay the bill in a couple of weeks anyway? 

[haulingthescoreup]

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smallfry wrote:

Of course there's no interest today on your money. But on the other hand why bother using them if you're not concerned with losing the lines if you are going to pay the bill in a couple of weeks anyway? 

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Sorry, you lost me there...

I use the cards, however minimally, to ensure that the creditor doesn't close them for lack of use. I'll be closing three cards in the coming year, but I want to be the one to decide when, not the creditor.

If you're asking why I PIF before statement drop time, it's because my scores would be about 15-20 points lower if I didn't. It used to be that we could say why bother if you aren't getting ready to app? --but now that creditors are softing madly away, I want my scores and reports fine-tuned to the snapping point. I'm stuck in the major derog bucket for another 4+ years, and if I'm going to be here, I figure I might as well get comfy. 715's look a lot better than 695's.

I paid off my BT, so we'll see what (if anything) happens when everything updates again with <1% util. But any big improvement comes in February - March - April, when I'll have nothing under one year old.

It wasn't that long ago that I was at 590. Didn't like it then, and don't want to be anywhere near it again!

[smallfry]

Hauling I've been here for some time so you know I know the difference between PIF before or after the statement cuts as per FICO scoring. My point is if you don't care about the size of the lines and maintaining outsized ones if you are going to use a card and not get the benefit of the float then why bother? I continue to use my cards for everything. However if I had to do it again I would have avoided the frenzy for more and more credit limits and just stuck with my 40K available that I got in May 2007. My scores would have been considerably higher now. Out of the 16 new accounts opened since May of last year nearly half are closed whether due to combining lines and closing or just outright closure by me. Pretty stupid on my part in hindsight. 

[haulingthescoreup]

Gotcha. I didn't think that you were saying that, which was why I was puzzled. Plus I tend to sort of post answers for everyone, including rank newbies.

I'm looking forward to the day when my scores are in the mid-700's, and I can relax a bit about deadlines and all.

[Anonymous]

HTSU brings up a great point (as always, ), especially for people with FICOs below 760 (which I guess is the new 720???).  With creditors softing and getting antsy when they see balances reported, avoiding the dreaded AA, CLD or FR may be that 10-15 pt difference between letting your balances report, and PIFing before the closing date.