@Anonymous wrote:
I guess I am still unsure about 1 thing still.
If I have a card that has had a 0 balance for several months. Then on the 5th I charge $100. My statement prints on the 12th and shows a $100 balance. Even though I have not had a full cycle to pay the balance, when my CC company reports a few days after the statement prints, will it show that I am carrying a $100 balance, even though my first payment is not even due yet?
Yes. Your credit card company (CCC) will report $100.
This is because a CCC reports the Amount Owed at the top of the statement (shortly after the statement date). That's the big idea you need to get really clear about. When your statements had an Amount Owed of $0, your CCC will report $0, just after that statement. On the statement that has an Amount Owed of $100, your CCC will report $100, just after that statement.
Once you get this idea really clear in your head, lots of other things become clearer. Like: how do I get my CCC to report $20? The answer is to pay your balance down to $20 shortly before the statement prints. Because, when it does print, it will show an Amount Owed of $20, and your CCC will report $20.
PS. I note that your question reads:
"... when my CC company reports a few days after the statement prints, will it show that I am carrying a $100 balance...?"
As SouthJ and I have explained to you already, your CCC will not report that you are carrying a balance. It will simply report the balance. Here is what I told you in my previous post (in blue):
It will report a balance of $100. It will not "report that you are carrying a balance." Reporting a balance is what the issuer does when it tells a credit bureau what your balance was at the time the statement cut. Carrying a balance is something you do when you choose not to pay the Amount Owed on the statement in full.
It's really important that you understand what it means to carry a balance.
