Soring System

[Anonymous]

It didn't start out complicated. All I wanted was positive, not maybe answers.

My intent is to do my best to find out EXACTLY what's wrong. It all seems like Magic and Mirrors.

Every answer I see here is sheer speculation.

Even if you check your balance the day before the statement date and pay it online that's NO GUARANTEE that some charge won't get in before they actually close the account. I don't know how you're calculating interest charges but they're not calculated until AFTER the due date which is some 21 days after the closing date when the account goes PAST DUE.

I'm led to believe that Uunfair Isaac calls a balance after the posting (account closing) date as a negative factor and does not wait until the due date (payment must be received by date).

Mine run after closing but ALWAYS are paid by the DUE DATE.

Can anyone verift this thought?

[Anonymous]

TRUE, but you weren't obligated to do it.... As you probably would have been if this person had a 850, was dissatisfied with your rate, and went to the bank president with these facts.

[Junejer]

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Prof wrote:

It didn't start out complicated. All I wanted was positive, not maybe answers.

My intent is to do my best to find out EXACTLY what's wrong. It all seems like Magic and Mirrors.

Every answer I see here is sheer speculation.

Even if you check your balance the day before the statement date and pay it online that's NO GUARANTEE that some charge won't get in before they actually close the account. I don't know how you're calculating interest charges but they're not calculated until AFTER the due date which is some 21 days after the closing date when the account goes PAST DUE.

I'm led to believe that Uunfair Isaac calls a balance after the posting (account closing) date as a negative factor and does not wait until the due date (payment must be received by date).

Mine run after closing but ALWAYS are paid by the DUE DATE.

Can anyone verift this thought?

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Here is a fact, Prof. I know what is being charged on each of my CCs. I would know exactly if another charge were to sneak in. In fact, I know that I can charge up until a certain amount of days before the statement date and then I stop charging on that account. The fact is that if you know what you have charged that month, you won't get stuck. BTW, the day before is too close, the payment likely won't make it before the statement cuts.

Prof wrote:

I don't know how you're calculating interest charges but they're not calculated until AFTER the due date which is some 21 days after the closing date when the account goes PAST DUE.

Exactly, which is why I don't pay interest on the CCs that I PIF.

Prof wrote:

I'm led to believe that Uunfair Isaac calls a balance after the posting (account closing) date as a negative factor and does not wait until the due date (payment must be received by date).

This is what we have been saying all along, Prof. Most CCCs will report the balance as of the statement closing date, and not the due date. That is a function of the CCC and not FI. I also have a CC that will report the balance that I owe on the last day of the month.

[Junejer]

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Prof wrote:
TRUE, but you weren't obligated to do it.... As you probably would have been if this person had a 850, was dissatisfied with your rate, and went to the bank president with these facts.

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At the institution that I worked for, we didn't look at the FICO score unless something else came up that gave me reason to balk at the deal. Some of my best customers had FICOs in the 600s, but they had paid us "aces" and was loyal to our bank. So, to your point, it wouldn't matter what the FICO was, if a great, long-standing customer wanted to complain to the bank president about his/her rate, it would be their financials and past performance with us that would be the determining factor, not their FICO score.

Also, remember that commercial loans are not regulated the same way as consumer loans are, so we were under no obligation to be "fair" as it pertained to a FICO score.

[smallfry]

Prof you are making this way too complicated. For the sake of this discussion I am going to assume that your oldest open credit card was opened 20 or so years ago and your average age of accounts is around 15 years or so. If you allow 1 or 2 credit cards report balances under 4% of the available credit limit your scores will be as high as possible in your bucket. I assume you keep track of all your charges so I don't understand how you can have a problem with a charge sneaking in on you. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OK, I give up. It appears that there is no way to have a good credit score and USE credit as a responsible person. It seems that it's a helluva poor system that dings folks for following the rules which say if you pay by the due date you've met the terms of the CC agreement.

All of this pay before it closes crap would essentially mean not using the card for the last ten days of each billing cycle and that's a ridiculous restraint.

I also try to use cards with the lowest limits for charges where I think there is a risk of the card being used in a fraudulent manner. (ie Restaurants, Telephone orders, etc.) Anywhere the card is out of your sight during the transaction. This way if someone traps the card they can only get away with a small amount without having it rejected as an overlimit charge.

With a system as problem ridden as this it's no wonder the average person just says To Hell With It!

[smallfry]

Prof I hear your concerns about the card being "stolen" or used fraudulently. I also understand that if we are to use the cards in the most FICO friendly way we effectively are just paying cash and are not taking advantage of the float on the cards. You do know that you are not responsible for fraudulent use of your cards right? If you check your accounts morning and night you can catch unauthorized charges. I know the system is wacky but since most lenders use it we are stuck with it. It's far from perfect.

[Junejer]

Let me just add that it's the CCCs, that decide when the balance is going to get reported. As MattH stated, they could decide to report the balance on the day AFTER the due date, but they don't, for whatever reason. Prof, it is a game that we must play, if we are to maximize our scores, like it or not. This is the way that responsible users of CCs maximize their scores.

[haulingthescoreup]

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Prof wrote:

I'm led to believe that Uunfair Isaac calls a balance after the posting (account closing) date as a negative factor and does not wait until the due date (payment must be received by date).

Mine run after closing but ALWAYS are paid by the DUE DATE.

Can anyone verift this thought?

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Prof, are you familiar with the elements of a credit report?

To show whether someone was paying their balances in full, there would need to be a data field for balance due as of due date plus 1. A positive figure here would mean that a balance was being carried over.

Absent this data field, there is no way to use this info for calculating the score. Therefore, the balance as of the statement drop date is used instead. (Except for HSBC/ Orchard and US Bank, which report your balance as of the last business day of the month.)

[marty56]

People who have large recuring CC payments with the exception for business expenses (which should not be done on presonal credit) should try to coordinate payment prior to the statement drop date since that would insure that the balance doesnt get reported.