Hi all, A firstUSA CSR said that they report CC balances to the big 3 at the end of every calandar month. I wonder if this is common practice, or does it vary? I ask because if common, we could seemingly help our scores by making sure our balances come down just before the end of the month. TIA, Dave
Alot of us do that. You kind of have to watch and see, but mine report on or close to the closing dtae on the account. Citi and DMB (mine) are different. I can't figure citi out and DMB reports when they get around to it, it seems. Not every month.
I agree w/breeze... I've noticed that it will show up just AFTER the cycle date on every account(lag time is usually 30-60 day). Sister Girl
Ive been playing w/this one for some time now. What Ive noticed is they usally report at end of month but the balance they report will be the balance of when your statment prints, Not the balance at the end of the month. Which not all report every month I have some that will report every other month the balance of my statment which may print in the middle of the month. So you need to keep on top of when each statment print s for each account.
fascinating--like so much in this area, there seems to be little consistency. But it does sound like not only are their good cash-management reasons to have a small balance when one's cycle turns over, but it should also help one's credit score. Would welcome other data points? Thanks for the helpful answers!
Working with this since Feb, I can tell you that most credit cards update every night, your specific report is only updated at the end of your billing cycle.... I can also let you know that many loans (mortgages, student, auto) do not update nearly as often.... and without much of a pattern, maybe quarterly.
My auto loan reported when I got it, on all 3 CRA's, and never reported again (it's over 3 yrs now). When I realized it, I started disputing it. I rotate each month betwee the CRA's so it actually gets updated every 3 months now. Perhaps they will get the message. Who knows.....
Thanks bkev. The part about mortgages, etc. is consisent with my (limited) monitoring too. Not sure I understood your point about them being updated nightly, but your report not being updated...do you mean simply that the CC company keeps track of your balances ever night, but only turns them over to the agencies monthly?
I mean that most credit card companies send a nightly report to the credit reporting agencies.... Your specific account would only be sent once per month normally... When your bill issues... But not everyones bill issues on the same date...
breeze, thanks for the reply! I'm a little confused tho (could just newbie naivette.) Do you mean you had a loan reported as late that shouldn't have been, and you just dispute with one of the three CRA's each month? If so, that sounds like a good strategy, but I guess I'm missing the connection to my question... bkev, thanks for the clarification. That makes good sense, and is consistent with some of the data I've seen on my credit reports.
