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How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

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Anonymous
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How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

I'm hoping sombody can set me straight with this. I use several of my credit cards every month for my living expenses.  2 are Capital One 1 Platinum Classic with a $1900 limit and 1 Quicksilver with a $700 limit. I also have to First Premier Bank cards each with a $750 limit. I typically spend very close to the limits on all four BUT I pay the entire balance off each month as well, often twice in a month and long before my statement due date. What I cant figure out is how to keep my FICO score from dropping some 40 to 60 points every month or so. The way my scores fluctuate so wildly, it appears as tho there is frequent reporting of my spending and little reporting of my timely payments each time for the total spend/balance on all four accounts. Is there a better way or time to pay my balances so I can maintain a somewhat consistent credit score? 

5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

There sure is and good question.

 

Creditors typically only report to the bureaus once per month.  Typically that time is on or just after your statement cut date.  This date typically doesn't change very much, maybe +/- a day or two each month at most.  If you use any credit monitoring service even free ones, you should be able to see the dates that your creditors report. 

 

In order to have them report lower amounts, you'll want to pay down your balances a few days before your statement cuts.  If you have a $1700 balance that you pay down $1600 of on the 18th because your statement cuts on the 20th, that would leave a $100 balance plus any charges made on the 18th, 19th and 20th (possibly) left to report to the bureaus.

 

It sounds like you're making your payments much earlier and then are racking up charges over the next few weeks and then that balance is what's getting reported.  You can always make 2 payments if that's easier for you.  Make the normal payment that you would make, say taking a $600 balance on a $1700 card down to $0, then if you rack up another $800 in charges between the date of that payment and a few days before your statement cuts, make that second payment of $800.

 

You have 3 cards, which is ideal for score maximization if you have a small balance on just 1 of the 3 to report, while having the other 2 report a zero balance.  This method is known as AZEO and can be read about in many threads on this forum. 

Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

Thank you! That sounds like a solid plan! 

Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

Out of curiosity, where are you getting your FICO score from?  You may or may not be aware that the score provided from your Capital One accounts is a Vantagescore, not a FICO score, so it should be ignored.  I'm not sure if you get a FICO score from your other lender, as I'm not familiar with them.

 

If you'd like a free EX FICO 08 score monthly, you can get it at creditscorecard.com.

 

If you haven't done that yet, I'd suggest doing it now prior to making the balance reporting changes I recommended above just to see where your score stands before any tweaking.  Then after your 3 cards report to the bureaus with the $0 or small balance(s) see what that score is the next time it updates.  This is always fun to see, as you can quantify the results of your changes.

Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

I subscribe to myfico 3B so I pay $39.95 for monthly 3 bureau reports and scores with daily credit activity monitoring. I also subscribe to credit karma dot com but that’s a free subscription and they also use the Vantage Score.
Message 5 of 6
codefreak13
Regular Contributor

Re: How often do creditors report balance changes to the 3 bureaus?

It may help to create a quick spreadsheet with the due date and statement cut date for each of your accts. In the past I had set up a column for each numbered day of the month and then a row for each credit card. I would black out the days between the due date and statement cut. I could then easily see at a glance any cards I could safely use that day without affecting util (assuming I met minimum payment by due date and had paid in full by the statement cut).

 

You can even req a diff due date if it helps spread the timing around so you always have multiple cards you can make charges on without affecting this. Added simple example.

 

example.PNG

Message 6 of 6
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