I give up trying to figure this out

[Anonymous]

Good Morning Forum Members,

I havent posted in a couple days been busy with the holidays. 

Now to my post.  I am giving up on trying to figure out what my CS is doing because no matter what I do to nurture it TU and EX keep dinging me every week. 

Last week was the worst of all 27 point down on EX for my new loan reporting.  Then TU wants to bang me 7 points for my balance increasing $200.00  Seriously $200 and your banging me 7 points.  I tried a month or so ago to figure out when each of my CC balances are reported to each of the CRA's and I really thought I had it figured out well to my not so surprise I DONT.  Its extremely frustrating, and I do care about my credit like everyone else on here, I mean thats why I pay $29.95 a month for myFico monitoring and why I do my very best to build a positive relationship with each of my creditors.

What I have done from day one of my rebuild since April 2015 is make purchases never even coming close to my SL then the minute it posts to my account I make a payment sometimes in full sometimes partial and this is a pre-statement payment meaning it's a payment during my current billing cycle and the payment due date hasn't even been posted yet.  Then on the day my statement posts I make the payment in full.  I was able to contact Cap 1 and find out my billing cycle period and generally when they will report any balance to the CRA's so I pretty much have them under control, right now my issue is Synchrony.  I have 7 cards with them and each of them seem to report differently.  I called Cust. Svc. for each of my cards and asked them if they could tell me my billing cycles and when they usually report to each CRA.  The lady from Walmart was able to tell me an around about date, and so was Stash BP and Amazon.  Couldnt really find out about my main card eBay.

I use eBay the most because out of all my CC's it has the highest CL thus producing the lowest UTIL.  My Belk and Lowes have a zero balance so they dont factor into the equation at the moment.

So being that I use the eBay MC the most i wanted to find out the report date, The problem is if anyone else here has the eBay MC the site you go to is PayPal.com and you can make your payment there.  It's and e-check so it does take longer than others do for some reason, and i have gone a week before the payment is actually debited from my checking account but the Available Credit is back up higher again.  Very confusing.  I contacted them yesterday 12/21/15 and asked to speak with credit solutions rep, told her briefly my situation and she said the reporting is usually within a 7 day period after statement post. Ugh, I now have to carefully watch the limit for those 7 days in order to get the lowest balnce reportable.  So I would just use another card with a low or no balnce on it but DING now I lose a point because of a balance increase from zero to whatever.  It's like I cant win with my CC's 

Well today I think I figured it out.  I am going to zero every single card i have out except my eBay card and use that for everything.  The way I figure it I am only going to get dinged for one card and once balance from here on out.  My question is , Does anyone think this will work and is it my best option and route to take.?

Please I am asking for some advice from all of you.  It's because of this forum and the advice from all of you that I have improved and learned so much, but I have so much more yet to learn.  I am open to all suggestions and advice.  If anyone would like the particulars of my situation and balances and information I think is not appropriate to post pubicly feel free to PM me.

Thank You all for reading my post , and as always I welcome advice comments on the post.  I appreciate all of you.

Have a Wonderful Day and a Blessed Holiday Season to you all !!!

[Thomas_Thumb]

I think the one card only approach for 3 months might be helpful in understanding Fico score dynamics with fewer distractions. However, longer term you do need to use other cards to keep them from going inactive and perhaps having the issuer take AA and reduce CL on those cards. Cards not used for over a year run some risk of being closed due to inactivity. 

Best to use secondary cards at least once every 4 to 6 months.

[Anonymous]

Do you think cards like Cap 1 would close even though I have had them the longest if I dont spend a lot.  My main reason for using the eBay MC is because it has the highest CL of all of them second card with highest limit is Walmart MC and my concern is I just requested a CLI on both.  I am afraid if I use either of my Cap 1 cards since the CL's are $1500 and $1300 my Util gets higher whereas my Walmart MC is $6k and eBay is $8k using them would defianetly keep my UTIL down lower than using the Cap 1 card.  The BP card gets used a lot because its a fuel card and thats not really that important because I make weekly payments on that card in hopes they raise my CL. As far as Amazon thats almost a daily card and paid frequently.  They dont seem to have much bearing on my CR.

I just wish this was some uniform reporting system in place that way all of us could know exactly how to manage our CC's.  I never imagined taking care of and nurturing one's credit could be so stressful and in depth.  

[NRB525]

First, sorry to hear about the frustrations.

I think you are working too hard and may not understand some of the basics of how cards report. As far as I know, the eBay card (and all but US Bank cards) report the amount that prints on your monthly statement to the CRA. They DO NOT pick a random day out of a string of 7 to use one of those balances inconsistently. So just manage the balance leading up to the statement date, then after the statement prints, go back to using the card normally. It may take them 7 days to report, but it will be the statement amount.

If you get each of your cards reporting some small amount every month, you show activity, your score gets used to that and the swings caused by a card suddenly getting a balance, from zero prior, goes away. And I mean let the statement show balances. You probably won't see much impact, and long term you won't be stressing.

If rebuilding, that means you have baddies, and until those go away, your scores will be held down. Just use your cards regularly, and pay by the payment due date, not minute by minute.

Good luck!

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do you think cards like Cap 1 would close even though I have had them the longest if I dont spend a lot.  My main reason for using the eBay MC is because it has the highest CL of all of them second card with highest limit is Walmart MC and my concern is I just requested a CLI on both.  I am afraid if I use either of my Cap 1 cards since the CL's are $1500 and $1300 my Util gets higher whereas my Walmart MC is $6k and eBay is $8k using them would defianetly keep my UTIL down lower than using the Cap 1 card.  The BP card gets used a lot because its a fuel card and thats not really that important because I make weekly payments on that card in hopes they raise my CL. As far as Amazon thats almost a daily card and paid frequently.  They dont seem to have much bearing on my CR.

I just wish this was some uniform reporting system in place that way all of us could know exactly how to manage our CC's.  I never imagined taking care of and nurturing one's credit could be so stressful and in depth.  

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It is hard to say how long a card issuer will let a card go before closure due to inactivity. It varies quite a bit but likely somewhere in the 2 year to 5 year time frame.

Letting a small CL card report a balance of even up to 49% of limit should not have a significant impact on score. Combined utilization across all your cards has a bigger affect - it is best to keep aggregate (combined) utilization under 9% at all times.

Also, when you rotate between cards it is not really a big deal to allow 2 cards to report a balance in a given month. One tactic is reporting a "normal" balance on your primary card and charging/allowing a token balance to report on one of the secondary cards. Alternatively, you could use a secondary card and pay off the charge on that card before statement cuts - That protects against the card being closed or credit line reduced due to inactivity and also eliminates concern about reported utilization on a low limit card.

I typically make/report small charges on secondary cards and allow them to report naturally. Then I PIF amount shown on each statement. The method works for me.

[Anonymous]

Ok maybe rebulidning is a bad word to describe it .  I have zero badies zero bankrupt zero anything I just say rebuilding but maybe i should say building or establishing because prior to April 2015 i never had a CC in my name just an AU before that years ago.  Currently I have around $30k across 10 cards and accomplished that in 8 months whats hurting me is way way to many HP's TU 17 EX 15 EQ 15 and a brand new unsecured instalment loan for $7k that just reported.  According to my CR's its my AAoA and HP's thats hurting me thats why I am in the garden till 12/16 hoping that helps.  But over all my CC's i have around 9% UTIL I think thats pretty good for having $30k of credit in just 8 months.  Does that help in anyway to explain my situation ?

Thanks so much for the reply and advice its appreciated very much 

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok maybe rebulidning is a bad word to describe it .  I have zero badies zero bankrupt zero anything I just say rebuilding but maybe i should say building or establishing because prior to April 2015 i never had a CC in my name just an AU before that years ago.  Currently I have around $30k across 10 cards and accomplished that in 8 months whats hurting me is way way to many HP's TU 17 EX 15 EQ 15 and a brand new unsecured instalment loan for $7k that just reported.  According to my CR's its my AAoA and HP's thats hurting me thats why I am in the garden till 12/16 hoping that helps.  But over all my CC's i have around 9% UTIL I think thats pretty good for having $30k of credit in just 8 months.  Does that help in anyway to explain my situation ?

Thanks so much for the reply and advice its appreciated very much 

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Yes, it does help explain your situation better. Congratulations on getting so many cards in such a short time.

The downside to this is, and it's not much of a downside really, your scores will be volatile until you establish more payment history. More payment history is simply a function of making payments on time.

Since you will not be applying for anything for a year, my suggestion is to stop the micromanagement. Use all your cards for the appropriate place they get rewards. For regular credit cards, I like to use them for small charges just to keep them a little active, it doesn't take much each month, and you won't be giving up any significant pennies by doing this. Store cards are only to be used for necessities from that store, not "to keep the card active". If no legitimate purchase, leave it in the sock drawer.

Let all the cards report their balances as you use them. Pay in full by the payment due date. Set up the payment ahead of time to make sure it is scheduled or autopaid for you so you don't have to worry about missing any payments. Your score will gyrate around a certain number, but should start to climb as the HP age closer to 2 years.

As you start to get toward the end of 2016, if you are thinking of apping any cards at that time, then you can start managing the utilization percentages down, perhaps go to paying some cards to zero for the statement to optimize your score. For the next many months, though, micromanaging is not necessary. In my opinion, micromanaging during the next 10 months is somewhat counter-productive to your long term goal of building a credit history.

Good luck!

[DU556]

Just wondering, what's the reasoning for applying for so many cards in such a short period of time? I only have 6 and managing them is like a lot of work for me. My best buy visa card has the smallest CL but every time I want to close it, i remember how old it is. Work on increasing your limits from now on.

[Anonymous]

I guess the best way to explain that would be simply not having this forum to explain the ups and downs and ins and outs of credit.  I figured the more cards the better it would look to lenders when it comes time for the bigger things, like car loans business loans and possibly home loans. I felt that one card was not enough to help establish myself in the credit world, when i started this process back in november 2014 i didnt have a single cc only my td bank debit card and we all know debit cards dont play a significant role in regards to credit at all.

in april of 2015 i made a leap and apped for cap 1 surprisingly getting approved for $300 i worked the card frequently and then things fell into place. when i got my first card with synchrony (amazon) i just went on an app spree and here i am 10 cards later.  The issue isnt paying the bills, thats no concern at all its the pain i feel everytime my score goes down because im not utilizing my cards correctly.  Frustrating is the best term i can describe this situation,  I am not apping until at least 12-2016 and have been slowly getting the CL's on my cards raised but again i dont want to push my luck and idk if thats going to hurt me either.  The world of credit is still confusing to me thats why i am here to get help from other people who may have gone through what i am now.

Thanks for the reply,  Have a great holiday season 

[Anonymous]

This entire credit score thing is an enigma to me too, but I look at it from this perspective: ignore the short-term fluctuations.

Think of it like a long-term stock-market investor: don't let the daily or even monthly ups and downs get to you.  Just play your cards right (provided that means, paying your bills on time and not getting in over your head) and I'm sure your credit score will take care of itself over the LONG-TERM.

At least that's what I did and am doing.  Prior to me joining here, I haven't checked my scores in almost a decade, but I never missed a payment or burdened myself beyond my ability to pay and my scores are pretty good I guess and they have gone up significantly since that time.

However, since joining MYFICO, I have watched them go up and DOWN and frankly I just ignore it and try and do whatever is suggested and of course, pay everything on time.