Here's my scenario just wondering how this works. Applying for a loan sometime in mid-late December...and I had previously had a credit check done back in October and everything was good to go...unfortunately I did not pursue the loan at that time and the credit docs expire on Monday so they will have to do a 2nd credit check. I made a $1,500 purchase on 11/18 on my Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards American Express Card. Closing date is 12/10. Does anyone know when Citi reports this balance to the credit bureaus? When they do will this new "higher" balance show up immediately or does it take some time (like 30 days) to update. I guess I'm worried somehow this new balance is going to cause an issue with the loan process. A lot of people I talked to say no but... Thanks for any comments!
Most major credit issuers, like Citi, report monthly to the CRAs. And based upon my experience with Citi, they report right after the statement closes. So, they will probably report the week of the 13th and then it should show up on your reports as soon as the CRAs update their database. You can probably count on the new balance showing up if they pull your reports late December. The higher balance should only hurt you if it significantly affects your credit utilization ratio, which in turn might drop your FICO scores.
thanks, make sense. A friend of mine told me that for him they did a credit check and looked at all his credit limits and factored that in, etc... so it doesn't matter if he used his cards or not. They are basing it off his credit limits. What they were looking for was if he went over any limits, opened new credit cards... not sure if that logic is right. For me I'm hoping to close this loan up by the 13th (that week) but I'm not really sure if a $1,500 purchase is going to change anything in all honesty... i appreciate the comments
Yes, your credit utilization ratio (counts for 30% of your FICO score) is the percentage of your total available credit that you're using at any given time. It doesn't matter if you use the card or not- if it's open and has a credit limit, it will be counted in the calculation. Do the math for your own situation and you'll be able to determine if a purchase of $1,500 will make much of a difference. If your CR ratio is still well under 30%, then I would say you have nothing to worry about. Good luck getting the loan closed!
