can you ask your credit card to go ahead and update their reporting to credit bureaus?

[Anonymous]

I have a credit card that had a small balance that was on a no interest rate deal.  I paid it off in full earlier this month, but just after the statement date.  So at this point my credit reports still show this card as having a balance.

I am trying to do a refinance and need a credit score of 800 to get the best deal.  It's a pretty good deal, but I need the 800 to get it.  I have 799 at Equifax and 792 at Transunion.  They list the fact that I have too many account with balances as a factor hurting my score as 5 accounts.  With this card paid off I only have 4 accounts with a balance so I think this would give me the few pts I need to get over 800. 

The trouble is that this deal may go away if I have to wait until after the statement date--usually about the 5th of every month--probably 1.5 or 2 weeks from now before it hits my credit report unless I can take some sort of action.

Any chance I can do anything?

[RobertEG]

CCCs post millions of updates to the CRAs monthly, and it is automated. 
They send a gigantic electronic file each month, and are unlikely to do a private and costly update for just one consumer.

Call the CCC and find out when they will report to the CRAs.  It wont enter your credit file until they report, and the CRA processes it.

Since you are shuffling for only a few points, be aware that FICO scoring also looks at the number of cards with balances, and if you get 3 of the five cards reporting no balances before your FICO is next computed, that willl also help.  But none of this can be done in a week or two.  You need to give account activity at least a month lead time in order for it to first be reported by the OC to the CRA, and then for the CRA to update your CR.

If the lendor wants your business now, wont they still want it 3-4 weeks?

Message Edited by RobertEG on 01-27-2009 11:27 PM

[Scamp]

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Nordic wrote:

I have a credit card that had a small balance that was on a no interest rate deal.  I paid it off in full earlier this month, but just after the statement date.  So at this point my credit reports still show this card as having a balance.

I am trying to do a refinance and need a credit score of 800 to get the best deal.  It's a pretty good deal, but I need the 800 to get it.  I have 799 at Equifax and 792 at Transunion.  They list the fact that I have too many account with balances as a factor hurting my score as 5 accounts.  With this card paid off I only have 4 accounts with a balance so I think this would give me the few pts I need to get over 800. 

The trouble is that this deal may go away if I have to wait until after the statement date--usually about the 5th of every month--probably 1.5 or 2 weeks from now before it hits my credit report unless I can take some sort of action.

Any chance I can do anything?

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Yes, you can call and ask, and in situations like yours, banks and CCC's often will do a good customer the courtesy of an inter-cycle update.  Give them a call, let them know what you're trying to do with the refinance and why the timing is so critical, and ask if they can do an inter-cycle update. 

Might take a couple tries, if frontline CSR's don't comprehend what you're asking or assume it can't be done - might have to ask to be transferred to a supervisor or their credit reporting department or some such.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

thanks.  It sounds like it could be unlikely that I could get a quick update.  It should update by itself within a week.  I'm thinking rates will not move up on that time period based on what I'm seeing.

Yes the lender will want my business next week; the issue is whether the interest rate will be the same; rates fluctuate daily. This is a sizable loan so even 1/8th or 1/4 change is significant.

[Junejer]

Hey Nordic, you can also do Rapid Rescore. Your lender should be familiar with how to facilitate this. Just keep in mind that it costs about $30-$35 per TL. One thing to remember is that for best scoring results, keep less than half of all open accounts with balances. Most high achievers recommend that there is only one CC showing a balance of 1-9% util.

[Anonymous]

I think the rapid rescore is for situations where you have already had a lender pull your credit, you think something happens shortly afterwards that improves your score and you ask the lender to pull your credit again.

In this case I've told the lender not to pull me credit.  I don't let the lender pull my credit until I know we have a deal.  I pull it first and just tell them what it is.  IN this case it is 1 pt short of where I want it--800

I did call the credit card company today and asked them to hurry and update the credit bureaus with the fact that my balance has been paid.  They said they did it and that it should show in about 48 hours since they noted it as "urgent." 

 It may or may not work.  It's a bit of a gamble because right now I have 5 accounts open, but only one credit card showing a balance.  The comment on the report I pulled was that I have too many accounts open.  With the payoff of this one credit card I will have only four accounts open, but I will have no credit cards with a balance.  Utilization was about 8% on that card prior to payoff.  So it could help by reducing the number of accounts with a balance, it could hurt by not having any credit cards with a balance, or it could do nothing.

I'm betting on it slightly helping because I have other revolving accounts (HELOC), installment accounts and mortgage account with a balance. 

We will see.

[haulingthescoreup]

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Nordic wrote:

 It may or may not work.  It's a bit of a gamble because right now I have 5 accounts open, but only one credit card showing a balance.  The comment on the report I pulled was that I have too many accounts open.  With the payoff of this one credit card I will have only four accounts open, but I will have no credit cards with a balance.  Utilization was about 8% on that card prior to payoff.  So it could help by reducing the number of accounts with a balance, it could hurt by not having any credit cards with a balance, or it could do nothing.

I'm betting on it slightly helping because I have other revolving accounts (HELOC), installment accounts and mortgage account with a balance. 

We will see.

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Paying off a CC balance leaves the account open. You shouldn't have any reduction in open accounts. The only accounts that are closed when paid down to $0 are installment loans, including mortgages.

"The comment on the report I pulled was that I have too many accounts open." I'm confused: is the comment too many open accounts, or too many accounts with balances? Five open accounts is certainly not too many. These are FICO scores and reports, pulled from here, not from credit bureaus, right? (Sorry, I always have to ask!)

I hope you didn't pay off the CC and ask them to close it. If you did, I'd get back on the phone PDQ and ask them to re-open! (unless your mortgage lender advised you to do this.)

Ideally, you want all five CC's open, with one showing an insignificant balance.

[Anonymous]

sorry; mistated what I meant.

I meant too many accounts with current balances at five of these accounts.  I have several open accounts with zero balance.  So now I have paid off one more of them so I only have four accounts with a balance.  The account is still open.

[Anonymous]

I've seen the advice on here about having one credit card showing a small balance.  I've also seen the advice to minimize accounts showing a balance.  That's why I said it was a gamble.  At this point I have little to lose given that I'm sitting at 799.  If I don't go over 800 then I may as well be at 750 as far as my deal is concerned. 

I'll report back what paying off the balance did.  Reduced number of accounts with a balance, but also makes it so none of my credit cards has a balance.

I'm thinking in my situation with my account mix it may be better for my score to pay off all balances and not have any showing any balance on the credit card front, but we will see.

[cobaltnv]

This is slightly off topic, but needing a FICO of 800 for a refi is news to me. I know that the scores needed to get the best rates have gone up somewhat; however, I was under the impression that a score of 760 (maybe 780) was going to get the best rates.