@Anonymous wrote:This is such a great forum and I've learned so much. I ran my credit here and have a 701 for EQ and 699 for TU with an 83% revolving util rate (12.4K on a Discover). I have the cash to pay it down to 7%, but had the notion before this forum that high util was a good thing. Silly me.
I want to tweak my credit score by having my Discover card report a small balance to the CB. I know my closing date/statement post date is on the 24th of each month. That means they should report to the CB that day or a day after. And my due date for the minimum payment falls on the 19th of every month. So if I want to have a small balance report to the CB each month I should pay the min payment before the due date and put a hold on spending my card until the 25th?
I also read on here that I can even have a small balance report to the CB and pay off the balance before the "cut" day to avoid interest. What is a cut day? and how do I find out what day it falls on my credit card.
Any help would be great! Thanks!
You knew the answer without realizing it!! Your cut date is the statement closing date. From what I've seen with all my accts is, the acct cuts & within 2 maybe 3 days, new balance shows up first on EX, within a couple days it shows on TU, then EQ. Sometimes EQ & TU update the same day, sometimes they're a day or so apart. Overall, the 3 update process is done within 4 or 5 business days.
For a while, I kept records of my own accounts to get an approximate answer to one of your questions. I subscribe to one credit monitoring service, and have a freebie on another from a class-action case. I set the alert thresholds for dollars and percentage balance changes pretty low, so I got alerts frequently. I figured the alert date would be pretty close to when each CRA received a new post from the CCC, and counted days from the alert back to the closing date shown on the preceding statement. With only a few exceptions, the intervals were 5 or 6 days.
Then more recently, I've been paying off my accumulated charges on all but one card just before the next closing date. My records let me predict pretty well when that will be. (Also, AmEx shows what it will be on their website.) You have to guess how much time to allow for merchants to post new charges. Some can be pretty slow. I usually turn each card around backwards in my wallet about five days before the next closing date.
This worked pretty well for me, might for you too. Or you might decide it's way more bother than it's worth! Good luck.
Starting Score: EQ 804 - (April 2009)
@Duke-of-Earl wrote:
I usually turn each card around backwards in my wallet about five days before the next closing date.
I find a note like this to be highly educational. It's packed with so much understanding it should be written into law. 
MasterCard's InControl, a considerable effort, doesn't address the above directly, as far as I know. And the credit reform a while back addressed the due date being fixed, not the statement date.
Neither paying down your balance before the statement date nor using the card from then until after the same date can be fully automated. This is not helpful for people who are focused on the grace period that follows the statement cycle. It may be because the due date is so clearly defined. It's visible.
There was an article in NY TImes last year written by someone who realized that she "was the kind of person who needed to see things in front of me or else I forgot I had them." The article didn't address the use of credit cards specifically, just uncluttering and organizing overall and how to deal with it depending on what kind of person you are. An Orderly Office? That’s Personal.
Turning cards not to be used backwards work for some. Some put them in front and on the top. Some pull them out for the five days and then put them back, while some forget because those cards are no longer visible.
Those who remember may not actually have a better memory. Maybe they have merely found a system that makes it easier for them to remember. 
The same goes for paying down balances before the statement date. My system is to do it the day after the due date of the previous statement cycle. The reason I keep two entries per card in my spreadsheet is not to remember; it's because each of two lists an amount. It's good to know in advance that a payment won't bounce.
