What exactly gets sent to the Credit Bureaus

[Anonymous]

Hello, I had another thread here that I was going to ask this on.  But I was locked out of my account and was very busy with school.

I am one and a half months in on my first credit card. You guys helped me a ton understanding thee utilization and so much else!

What exactly gets sent to the credit bureaus from my credit card company? I tried asking a Discover lady and it was just painful. Her logic and math were all wrong, so I doubted every single thing she said.

I'm partially wondering because I've been making multipe payments a month and wondered if that looked bad, but also was just curious.

Thank you!

[DollyLama]

From this one credit card these thing will be reported

1) The hard inquiry when you applied - this stays on your report for 2 years, but doesn't affect FICO after 1 year

2) The date the account was opened and your starting CL

3) Your highest balance AFTER statement cuts ie you may charge 500 dollars on a SL of 1000, but if you pay all of it down (one payment or multiples doesn't matter, only by statement cut) ie BAL $29/$1000

4) the nature of the account, ie R for revolving

5) the payment history from time it was opened throughout the time you hold and keep the card open

Example 1 yr down the road, 0 30 day late, 0 60 day late, 0 90 days late etc, if you always pay on time, never missing a payment. 

Might look like

DISCOVER 02/17  $29(your highest reported balance ever and current balance)  $1000  R 

but example if you ever let the card for any reason cut a statement for say a month of $400 for emergency, it will show that the highest you ever used was 400/1000 but a current balance of $29 . Again, it will only be what balance you carried when a statement cuts, not how much you are charging during the month. So if you charge 700 during the month and always pay BEFORE the statement cuts $631, your highest will remain at $29. 

As you  progress into obtaining more decent CCs that always are paid in full every month before your statement cuts, bal 0/2000 and it's payment history, opening date, etc 

Soft pull credit inquiries for CLI, do not affect your report like hard inquiries. 

Maybe others can chime in , but I'm just going off, if you only have 1 open card on your credit bureaus (all reporting). 

[Anonymous]

Thanks DollyL!

A note to our OP: we may be able to help you best if you let us know whether you have pulled any of your credit reports in the last few weeks, and if so with which bureaus and using what tools.

For example, Credit Karma is a tool that gives you EQ and TU reports (once a week).  WalletHub gives you TU (daily).  Etc.

You'll be able to understand most easily what Discover sends to the bureau if you are looking at an actual report from the bureau.

[Anonymous]

I didn't even know I could use Credit Karma since my credit is so new. Thank you!

The one really horrific thing, is there are three hard inquiries in the last two years. I know there should be two, but I have no idea where the third came from. It says the other  two will drop within three months. My credit score should go up after that, right? I didn't realize what a hard inquiry can do. My Transunion  which has them is  almost 30 points below my Equifax...

[Anonymous]

The scores that Karma provides are Vantage scores, rather than FICO scores.  Vantage scores are indeed used by some lenders but far fewer than FICO.  So you can relax about what your V scores might look like.  It's not especially important.

Did any of those three inquiries happen within the last 12 months?  FICO ignores all inquiries older than 12 months.  So again you are likely to be fine as far as the inquiries go.

Has your Discover card begun appearing on your TU and EQ reports yet?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@DollyLama wrote:

From this one credit card these thing will be reported

1) The hard inquiry when you applied - this stays on your report for 2 years, but doesn't affect FICO after 1 year

2) The date the account was opened and your starting CL

3) Your highest balance AFTER statement cuts ie you may charge 500 dollars on a SL of 1000, but if you pay all of it down (one payment or multiples doesn't matter, only by statement cut) ie BAL $29/$1000

4) the nature of the account, ie R for revolving

5) the payment history from time it was opened throughout the time you hold and keep the card open

Example 1 yr down the road, 0 30 day late, 0 60 day late, 0 90 days late etc, if you always pay on time, never missing a payment. 

Might look like

DISCOVER 02/17  $29(your highest reported balance ever and current balance)  $1000  R 

but example if you ever let the card for any reason cut a statement for say a month of $400 for emergency, it will show that the highest you ever used was 400/1000 but a current balance of $29 . Again, it will only be what balance you carried when a statement cuts, not how much you are charging during the month. So if you charge 700 during the month and always pay BEFORE the statement cuts $631, your highest will remain at $29. 

As you  progress into obtaining more decent CCs that always are paid in full every month before your statement cuts, bal 0/2000 and it's payment history, opening date, etc 

Soft pull credit inquiries for CLI, do not affect your report like hard inquiries. 

Maybe others can chime in , but I'm just going off, if you only have 1 open card on your credit bureaus (all reporting). 

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The high balance that gets reported is not necessarily your highest statement balance. I had a higher mid cycle balance on my Best Buy store card than statement balance. The high balance shown by all three CRAs was greater than the statement balance.

Credit reports also show changes in CL over the last two years along with the date CL changed. In the past, some CC issuers reported monthly payments as well as balances and the payments were listed along with balances.

[Anonymous]

Well that's great news! No, they were both one month a part oddly enough and are almost two years old.

Yes, it has! But not too much information other than utilization which is at 7%, no late payments,  a few personal details, and details about my credit card itself.

But they really don't have much. 

Thank you so much for showing me all this and helping me! According to that report, I already have a better credit rating than some of my family members. I'm definitely going to keep it up!

My credit is officially only has two months. Do you think by the six months and if I do what I'm doing now, I'll have a better credit  rating?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My credit is officially only has two months. Do you think by the six months and if I do what I'm doing now, I'll have a better credit  rating?

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Well, right now, you have no credit rating, at least from FICO's perspective.  That's because you need an account that is at least six months old before FICO considers you scoreable.

But sure, keep on doing what you are doing and you will be just fine.  (Keep using the card each month, and make sure your utilization stays in the vicinity of 1-8%.)

Do you think you might be interested in applying for another couple credit cards at month 6 or 7?  (After you have a FICO score?)  That would be a really good long term investment for you, and totally within your reach.  It's good as long as you are confident that you can keep your spending very low (only use the cards for things you really need and never buy stuff that you don't have money for in the bank right then).

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll definitely be doing that.

Absolutely. I'm super responsible financially. I think part of it is because of my family's poor credit and financial instability, but also just part of my personality. Anyway, so I'd definitely do it. Should I do it through my bank? I have BBVA Compass. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I also remember you guys telling me about the short term loan where you pay it all off. I was thinking about doing that, but I'll get a new car when I graduate, so I'm not sure.

But my bank has this thing where they hold $500 for you and after a year you get it all back. I don't remember what it's called, but it sounds similar to the loan.

[Anonymous]

The loan idea is called the Share Secure Loan Technique.  It's actually not a short-term loan, by which most people would mean 6 or 12 months.  It's much better to make it a 5-year loan.  And you don't pay it all off.  It's actually crucial that you don't pay it all off, but rather you pay most of it off and then keep the loan open for the rest of the 5-year period.

You can read up on how the SSL technique works here.  (All you need to do is read the first 2-3 posts.)

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...

As far as credit cards go, I would wait until you are at month 6, and then sign up for the $1 trial at Credit Check Total.  That will give you your three FICO 8 scores, one from each bureau, as well as a 3-bureau credit report.

At that point you will see what your scores are and you will be able to decide what cards are within your reach.  Apply for two cards you really like.  My suggestion is to make one of them be a Chase card, since right now you are still compliant with something called the Chase 5/24 rule.  There will likely be a nice promotion running for the Chase Freedom at that time. 

If you feel like doing the Alliant SSL loan technique during June, that may be a nice fit, since you'll already have the full benefit by the time you get your FICO scores at month 6.