I was speaking with a senior banking officer at my job friday and we were discussing credit card balances and credit reports. I told him that I though it was a GOOD thing to pay off your balances in full every month. He said that if you do that your not building a credit history. What are your views on this issue? Personally, Ive had my share of paying interest and not seeing anything for it. I had a credit card with 1000 limit in 1998, my first. And, today its at 1500, from interest and fees and paying just the minimum. personally, Now that ive rebuilt my creidt, I am afraid to NOT pay my balance off in full because of the past problems. I recently did some balance transfers of large amounts to 2.9 and 3.9% cards and Ill be making very large payments until i can get them paid off, in about 3 months. Then, ill go back to my new habit of paying off my balances in full. psugirl
If you do it right, you should still see balances reported on your credit reports, so you might not be building history with that particular bank, but you could be as far as other creditors are concerned.
F.I.C.O. GIVES A SCORE ON A "GIVEN DATE"... FROM MY OWN CREDIT REPORT (DISCOVERCARD~EXPERIAN)... 10/2000 $4,037 11/2000 $3,547 12/2000 $6,019 01/2001 $5,437 02/2001 $2,094 HOW DID I PAY???? I PAY IN FULL EVERY MONTH, BUT YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW FROM THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY F.I.C.O. SCORE IS REALLY LOW...(690), BECAUSE OF "STATEMENT DATE" POSTING... I USE CREDIT TO SAVE $$$$$$
Would you suggest that I find out the closing dates of each of my creditors and pay my balanceses off before the bill is due or what At what point do creditors report your balanances. i think that on tuesday that im going to call each one of my creditors and find out: 1: when do they report to the CRA's 2. Is that day constant everymonth 3. is that day my statement closing date 4. How can i have my balance for that month reported, but still pay it off so that i dont encure interest charges. Ill report my findings, psugirl
IT IS HARD TO SAY WHEN THEY REPORT... A couple of the BALANCES match billing date...BUT some of the BALANCES are the day before the payment posted (OR THAT DAY)!!! SO THEY GET MY PAYMENT...SEND UPDATE TO CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY...THEN POST MY PAYMENT!!!!
There is nothing wrong with paying in full, however I tend to agree that carrying a balance helps if you make large payments and make them on time. I am of the strong believe that CreditWorks has helped me and all others participant increase their lines and lower their credit costs. CreditWorks allows us to carry a balance at little or no cost. www.creditsense.com
Well, I don't have any information to add to this thread, but attempting to use at least some logic, I'd say that some of them report electronically (of course) on a certain day of the month on a schedule. Others may just report when there is a change in an account. Others may do it some other way I haven't thought of. George's reply would indicate that they do it according to some "diabolical" formula designed to hurt their customers to the greatest extent possible. I'd leave that kind of thinking to the credit bureaus who at least seem to us to do just that. Hurt the consumer as much as possible. And I don't even believe that. Just the way it appears to us when we are trying to fight with them. As I said, I don't actually know one single thing about when or how they report to the Credit Bureaus. All I really do know about it is that the last time a creditor or a CA reports anything about me at all, it's usually done by FED EX overnight or EXPRESS MAIL and they send their report to me and to the credit bureaus at the same time. And that's often just a follow up to a long distance call they made first just to be extra sure their report gets deleted and in a big, big hurry. I just got another one of those yesterday (Sunday) morning. Came EXPRESS mail. Then they called me up to be sure I got it. Them boys wasn't taking any chances.
Exactly. All my past & present creditors report the balance as shown on the CC statement. Thus it appears that one is revolving a balance even when one pays in full monthly. That's why I plan well in advance. For example, in a couple of months, I'll be applying for a Citi. Not wanting to risk being declined for high debt ratios, I'll pay off my balances a couple of days before the cycle closes (different date for each card). Of course you don't have to do that every month, only when you intend to apply for a certain card (or for a credit increase if a report is pulled). George, If you do that, your score - at the time credit is pulled - would be well over 700. Think about it, it was 690 despite the high debt ratio shown. Saar
Not bad, but consider the disadvantages. First, getting "several more cards" may have a very negative effect on credit score, especially during the first 6 months (look for a recent post showing a score decrease from ~700 to ~655 mainly for this reason). Second, even if it does increase your FICO, your worsening "income- to- available credit" ratio may suggest that you already have all the credit you can handle and prevent approval for cards/ loans at terms you really want/ need. Third, given the common failure to report limits, (Cap 1, Amex, and many others), there would be no real benefit without simultaneously inflating your balances to reach those higher limits, and when it comes to $30,000-size limits, that may be too high a price to pay for a better FICO. The method I suggested should not be used too frequently. Designate 1-2 times every 6-12 months when you may want to apply for credit, and only exercise it prior to those few times. BTW, 99% of my payments are made online. Saves all the trouble and the need to be extra careful about the dates. For example, my Amex online payments may take 24-48 hours to post, but they're always backdated to show the date I authorized them, not the date they were actually debited; which really is a great feature for avoiding late fees and saving on interest accrual. Saar
