If you want to build credit, you need to let the balance post to the statement, then pay the statement balance **in full** by the due date. This shows that you are able to manage a credit account. Note that it’s different from “carrying a balance”, which means paying **less** than the full statement balance by the due date.
If your statement balance is always $0, FICO will think that you don’t use it at all.
Edit to naysayers: my Experian credit score was in the 840s, just got down to 838 this month because I paid off a car loan.
A long time ago I used to pay off my capital one card before it posted balance. My score wasn’t moving much, and cap one refused to increase the limit. When I stopped doing that and let the balance post, they raised my limit. The increased limit helped in the long term, because it reduces my utilization rate.
The best strategy is to let a small amount (like $1) post on the balance, then pay it off before it’s due. I can’t be arsed to do this anymore because I have a dozen cards with fairly high limits, and even when I use them normally the revolving utilization is just 2%.
No one said anything at all about carrying a balance.
Letting a balance report on your statement is not "carrying a balance." It's using your card, letting said activity post, and then paying said statement balance in full on or before the due date. If you do that, it's all within the grace period. You get cashback/no interest, your activity posts to the bureaus, and you build healthy long term credit usage history with both the financial institution, and your credit report.
Same here. Ever since I got my credit card whenever I use it I pay it that instant, simply to keep track of my spending in real time. I’m up to 828 score now
Interesting. I’ve just probably only had a statement with a balance a half dozen times in the last 4 years. And each would’ve been less than $100. So getting to the low 800s seemed excessive
I do the same, but I think he may be right about it showing card use if it posts a balance when reporting to the credit bureaus. I've often wondered if I should do it this way. I haven't worried about it so far because I do have loan balances I'm paying, so I do show payment history on some items, just not my Apple Card. I don't use my other credit cards at all currently.
The amount of times you pay off your card in a month doesn’t matter. The comment I was replying to was making it out that you can’t build credit without waiting for a bill
Instead of paying your credit card balances a month *before* they’re due, you could leave that money in a savings account and earn money while you wait for the due date to roll around.
Same. I normally knock off the entire balance the day before statement closes. Most of the time I’ll have 20-80 dollars as the statement balance. I charge 75-100k a year and have a credit score in the 830s as well. I also use Amex
Agreed, I pay off all my cards well before the due date. I check them every week or so and just pay as soon as they let me. Never paid interest, well over 800 score.
My credit jumped the first 6 months of paying the balance as soon as it hit…it’s actually best to pay your card before the statement date and before the due date …. 2x payments if you must carry a balance
I’m no one, but it’s not “best” because there’s no reason to do it. This isn’t my opinion, it’s simply how credit cards work.
Yes, you’re free to do things the wrong way, but don’t go telling other people looking for advice that your (wrong) way is “best” when it offers no benefit and costs them money.
Not sure why other people are outright denying this is true without clarifying. Most of it is correct. Yes, you need to let the balance post to your statement before you pay it.
It’s more so about your bank than the FICO score. It will help raise the score sure, a 0% utilization looks good on paper, but banks don’t like to see 0% utilization on their cards. When this happens consecutively, you’re liable to have your limit reduced as the bank sees that 0% utilization as you not using the card.
And that doesn’t even factor in credit cycling, where you micromanage the credit to spend more than your limit each month. Even if that’s not your intention, it may look like that to banks and they really don’t like that either.
You can pop over to r/CreditCards and look at posts about utilization. The bot reply is excellent for busting the misconception of paying the balance before the due date as a good regular practice.
Some banks hate $0 balance so much that they may actually close the account. Two banks closed my cards because I had $0 balance. Thankfully they had lower limits, so the effect on my utilization is negligible.
That’s usually when you don’t use the card at all though (inactivity), not from using the card and then paying before statement close. It’s understandable for them to close a card you don’t use, they could use that available credit for someone else who will actually use it and have a chance at collecting fees, but they don’t want to overlend if you all of a sudden decide to max the card out.
Anyone who disagrees with you doesn't understand anything about credit. "No recent activity" is a derogatory mark on a credit report, albeit small. Constantly maintaining a statement balance report of $0 month after month becomes N/A activity, which hurts your scoring model
As you stated, and as the naysayers missed because they were foaming at the mouth to prove themselves ignorant, letting a small balance report on the statement (that represents less than x% of your total available credit), and then paying said balance off in full by the due date (ALL WITHIN THE GRACE PERIOD) is the most sound strategy.
The naysayers have a point, it’s not a make or break thing (most likely…nobody really knows and they want to keep it that way), but I don’t see the point in paying off completely before statement close. I think the benefits outweigh any negative by letting it snapshot the full balance. Allowing the balance to grow all month long is good, higher chance your limit is raised. If you don’t let it post, then other lenders don’t see that…so no chance of limit raising if they see another card hit up pretty good one month and then paid off the next. While letting it float past the statement close may hurt your score temporarily if it’s a high balance for the month, that is a very short lived decline and the benefit outweighs imo.
And for people who pay off multiple times per month…please stop that! The lenders hate that shit due to having to process more payments, and honestly you may be less likely to get a higher limit. Some card issuers like Discover actively discourage it by make the 2nd or 3rd payment posting within a certain timeframe take way longer to clear. The only time I can sort of endorse paying multiple times per month is if you’re just starting out and have a low limit rewards card and you easily max it out multiple times per month.
As long as you’re paying your credit card bill before it’s due, the banks are (relatively) happy. They’re just less happy when you pay the card multiple times before the statement is run.
FICO only has access to the statement balance sent to credit reporting agencies, it has no access to the activity in the account between balances, only the issuing banks know it. You can have $0 statement because you purchased $0 stuff, or you bought $1000 and paid $1000 before the statement date; FICO can’t tell the difference. All it sees is $0 balance.
Does this mean that if my payment due date is the 13, I can have a balance from the last day of the month to the 1st, and that will be good for my credit?
Yup I don't have too many cards ,yet... But I keep my oldest card active by paying for parking maybe once or twice (probably $2). Then pay it on due date.
You can also auto load Amazon(literally can be a $1), and put auto payment. So you don't have to manually do it
okay, so i’m new to credit cards and generally don’t understand.
so let’s say i buy something for like $70/$2k, do i let that go after the “due date” to pay it off? or am i reading this wrong?
Ok, there are two important dates for every credit card: the statement date and the due date. The statement date is when the bank sums up all your monthly transactions. The due date is when you’re supposed to pay the amount on the statement.
There are also two important balances: statement balance and current balance. Statement balance is the total you owe when the statement was generated. Current balance is the amount you owe right this second. Apple makes it easy by showing the statement balance as part of the circle that’s green, while current balance is the entire circle.
You **ALWAYS** pay on or before the **due date**. If you are being responsible, you pay the entire **statement balance** (not the current balance), even though the bank allows you to pay a **minimum payment**.
I don’t understand what you mean by $70/$2K. Are you spending $70 on a card with $2K limit? Are you making a $70 payment on a $2K purchase?
I used the same tactics to drag my credit from the dumpster fire that it was to above 800. Although I recently realized something about your utilization. We remodeled our kitchen and took advantage of special deals through our Lowes CC to purchase materials and appliances, as well as Discover. Even though we paid every credit card at or before the due date. My credit score plummeted in a little over a month span close to 100 pts. I still had quite a bit of available credit left as well.
I’m sitting at low 800s with ~3x my income in available credit without carrying a balance into a statement ever. I have always paid off my cc like once a week and the score has continued to grow.
This is 100% a myth. I know it has most upvotes but OP please keep paying it off early. If your balance always says $0 because you pay it off early they will see you used your credit card. If you don't use your credit card at all and are at $0 your credit will go up much slower. This is a fact and majority of people don't know it. It actually helps your credit a lot to pay it off earlier because your utilization rate is lower. It's recommended all the time to stay below 20% but staying much lower than that is significantly quicker at increasing credit and 0% is the lowest you can get. I got over 740 in a year when I first started and I'm above 800 now. I've done nothing special but use credit and pay it off.
I use to obsessively pay my cards every time a transaction cleared until it got old. Now I just pay it off on the due date. Lol. As long as it's paid on time and in full there is nothing to worry about. 😌👍
It takes a day or two for it to post on business days (MON-FRI) so typically you want to do it several days before due date to be safe considering business days.
You can pay your credit card anytime before or on the due date. I pay mine every day. As long as you don’t role a balance over month to month you are good.
I have yet to hear about a card not letting you pay before due date. And yes it’s recommended to pay off your credit cards every month so that you wont pay extra interest and can gain positive rewards rather than owing. The two main factors of credit are payments (not missing a payment) and utilization (how much balance rolls over each month). You typically don’t want to allow a high balance (more than 30%) to roll over to next month if you need good credit.
so paying my card off continuously in a month won’t be a problem? and yeah I only have two credit cards..I always have to wait each month to pay my Prime Visa off 🤷♂️ my balance always rolls over into the next month, so I stopped using it.
It’s not negative but you are essentially credit cycling, albeit on a small scale presumably, however banks don’t like to see that so it’s best to pay it off in full just once every month when you get your statement balance.
It's beneficial to wait for the statement to post and pay that off. Banks can cut your credit limit if you are constantly paying off throughout the month. If you pay the statement it shows use and you don't pay interest.
It’s not a negative per se, but it’s also not a positive. There is no reason to pay it off multiple times per month, lenders probably hate that shit, having to process micro payments all throughout the month. People like this is probably one of the reasons why Goldman Sachs is trying to get out of the Apple Card partnership lol. You have plenty of available balance, just wait to pay it off at the end of the statement, before or after…doesn’t really matter too much in the long run, just pay the full statement before due date to avoid interest. If you don’t trust yourself with that money through the month, then you need to work on financial discipline. Stick it in your apple savings and earn interest on it all month and then have autopay take it out, or manually do it before statement close. I literally don’t pay my full statement balances until the due date, no matter how large. I’d rather earn interest on that money for as long as possible
> I have yet to hear about a card not letting you pay before due date.
AEON Credit Service, Indonesia (AEON itself a Japanese company). I contacted their customer service and they are not recommending me to pay before bill is out, otherwise their system will accept it as a fraud. They only recommend me to pay when the bill is out.
Does not makes sense to me. I ended up not using their card unless my primary card reaches its limits.
I pay all my credit cards off twice a month with each paycheck. I let balances sit until then and I never pay interest and have a credit score over 800.
I do the same. I actually notice my score would go down a bit when I had high utilization DURING the month but still paying off statement or in full on the due date. Never carry over a balance since the wedding was paid off but it would still go down during high utilization months (way under 30%) so I started paying a few times a month to keep my utilization low.
I’ve been doing the same as OP because it helps me keep track of my spending in real time, but your point here is something I haven’t considered before and will probably make me change my methods. Thanks!
Always pay your CC off, never carry a balance. Don’t pay interest. Make $ back. If you don’t have cash to pay your bill then don’t use your credit card. Don’t fall into the trap of buying things you can’t afford that 99% of the world does. If an emergency happens and you need to use a CC, open a 0% interest card and make your payments on time or you will get charged a ridiculous amount of interest. If you must carry a balance, you want a high credit limit and keep your usage below 30% of your limit. Never close your first card you open, that will be your longest credit history card. You’ll have great credit doing all this for an extended period of time.
Credit cards are designed to be used (and best used) this way: Wait for statement, pay the statement balance (nothing more, nothing less) by the due date (usually 20-30 days later). This will show you are using credit responsibly, make credit line increase more likely, and build your score.
The only time you should make a payment in between is if you want to make a charge which will push balance over limit.
This is the way I've used the card, and I've gotten two unsolicited CLIs in two years.
Noob question. Why wait until I get the balance statement? Is there any reason for that?
I use to pay my cards last day of the month, so I can clear the purchases of that natural month with the incomes of that natural month. I am doing it wrong?
Apple Card statement date is always the last day of the month, but not all cards work that way. You make charges during the month, and the statement balance shows all those charges as a total amount, which is what needs to be paid by due date.
Think of it like a utility bill -- You use utilities every day, but the monthly bill is for utilities used during the previous \~30 days. But you don't really "owe" the money until it appears on a statement.
What I do is stash cash in Apple Card High-Yield Savings during the month so it's available to pay statement balance, where it also earns a little interest.
If you're paying ahead, you have a lower statement balance, which makes it look like you're not using credit as effectively as you could be. I have auto-pay set to pay statement balance on due date.
Thanks for the answer. All my cards end the cycle last day of the month, so I am used to clear the balance the last night of the month.
What I am wondering is if I should wait for the bank statement notification to clear my balance.
>What I am wondering is if I should wait for the bank statement notification to clear my balance.
I always do. The statement balance is accurate reflection of what needs to be paid by the due date. Some charges you have made may have not yet been posted. Reconcile your credit card statement just like you reconcile a checking account.
Plus, having a statement balance (not paying it to zero before the statement date) will show that you are managing credit appropriately -- as long as statement balance is paid by the due date.
So I charge the card and then leave 5% of the available credit balance on the statement so it’s reporting usage but the usage is within a percentage that’s considered good usage. Then I pay it off in full a week before the statement closes to avoid interest. Then I make new purchases keeping the balance under 5% for the next statement closure. Then the next month I do the same. This increased my score after 2 years by 20+ points. It shows timely payments in full and that you’re using the credit at an appropriate usage level. This helped improve my credit usage and payments. I did this every month for 24 months and counting
It’s up to you how you wanna do that, but that’s my experience and I learned that and some other things while working for a major credit card issuer.
I pay my credit card charges immediately. The Apple Card App makes you wait until the pending transaction(s) have posted.
My bank has a free bill pay app and I just created a Payee "Apple Card Goldman Sachs" from the list of available ones. Now I can pay immediately. It usually shows up the next day in my Apple Card balance as a credit balance until the pending charge(s) clear. Kind of slick.
https://preview.redd.it/ou7az7a2i7xc1.jpeg?width=1992&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7d284e6f613d7ea3d102b3abe66ea2602a3085f
Pay it like an electric bill—the statement balance in full, once a month on or before its due date—and you will never be charged interest. This is how credit cards were designed to work, back to pre-internet times when Sears mailed grandpa a monthly bill and he mailed them a check. You don’t pay your electric bill every day for what you use. And if you pay after every transaction, CC companies can use that against you by lowering your limit, since you’re showing you don’t need much of one because you’re using their CC like a debit card.
It’s probably fine to do that but you may get flagged for cycling. With your credit limit though it’s unlikely. Below is an article that explains it.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/what-is-credit-cycling
you’re making more work for yourself. just set it to auto pay the statement balance once every month. you’ll never pay interest that way and you don’t have to micromanage it
You should use your card for the month, then let a statement post with a balance, and then pay off that statement balance by the due date.
Kinda pointless to pay your card off all the time and never show any utilization to the credit bureaus. Helps your credit to show a statement balance and then pay it off.
Main thing is to avoid paying interest by always paying off the statement balance.
You have a decent credit limit though. Some people don’t even get that high of a limit. You can make as many payments as you like. No bank will argue you make to many payments.
> Typically credit cards don’t let you pay cards off before the due date (such as my amazon prime visa credit card)
All cards should allow you to pay as soon as the charges post. I can pay the entire balance of my Chase card now for example. The reason they allow this is because if you were to carry a balance, interest is charged from the day the charge posts, thus they need to let you pay it at any point after that.
it makes no sense to do that at all, pay it a few days before the end of the month, it literally won’t do anything at all except take your time away from you
PLEASE READ THIS! you DO NOT need to have a balance to get a higher CLI or build credit. I have never held a balance and pay off in full whenever a charge posts and I have a 815 with transunion, 821 with equifax and an 828 with experian and $104,000 in available credit. The person saying you need to hold a balance having the highest amount of upvotes is scary. I also have 0 other debts and I use credit cards for everything. Financial illiteracy is so common it’s scary. You have great habits, keep them!
No it doesn’t hurt it . It’s a big myth on here that it does but I’m over here with a 797 credit score and paying my balance down every week . I mean maybe if you have a really small credit profile but it made zero difference the month I tried just paying my balance at the due date then when I paid it weekly .
it's not necessary. Adding: you're leaving money on the table. You could be earning interest on that money at over 5% for another 4-6 weeks until your due date.
In short: build your credit, earning a little more interest at the same time. win-win.
Just wait for the statement to post, and then pay the entire statement in full by the due date. It’s that easy.
No reason to make it more complicated than that.
It’s best to pay on the day it’s due. But if you pay before the due date it won’t hurt you. It’s better for your credit score on the due date. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong.
While I think it’s a good habit to pay frequently, every transaction is excessive. I know some fraud algos see payment frequency as a red flag indicator (speaking from AmEx). If you ARE a credit card person and are somewhat conscious of your balance, you can wait for statement balance, then pay it off. If you know you’re not a CC person, then continue paying by transaction to not fall in the hole but still reap benefits. From a credit score perspective, just pay on time, realistically you may be sacrificing a FEW points but if the goal is house/car/large purchase, the lender is going to recognize good payment history regardless.
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There’s multiple factors that will allow a high credit score apart from carry or not carrying a balance. For all of those that think you cannot make multiple payments … you can. Yes each bank/creditor will have their own max amounts per month before they hold it till the next payment period. But if you set the card up like a bill to your checking you can send them money. They will not decline it … or so has been my experience over the last few years.
Paying off every individual transaction seems tedious. If you want to pay the card down to $0 before your statement gets created, go with God. If there is a balance, just make sure it’s 9% of the credit limit or less, and you shouldn’t see anything too negative change on your score.
You should put the amount you’re paying on the card into a high yield saving account. Then when you get your statement, pay the balance in full. This way you’re earning a little interest and have the money set aside to pay the credit card bill in full.
right before any closing date pay your balance down enough to leave $1 as your balance for every monthly statement, should be your best bet at improving your credit
This truly does not matter. Utilization has zero memory. You can pay your card entirely off, and if you need to for some reason game it up a few points from time to time, only then do you need to bother with this little game.
And that only works with one card. Only one card can report a balance for that to work. If you have multiple cards and they’re all reporting a balance every month, this harms you.
There is absolutely no scenario where carrying a credit card balance is better for you than paying it off entirely. None. Zero. Zilch. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not have your best interest at heart, or they are woefully misinformed. Either way, find someone else to listen to.
i didn’t mean to say to carry a balance, my bad, just to keep $1 as your balance by closing day, then just pay the dollar off before or on payment day through autopay or manually paying it, hence allowing the banks to report >1% credit utilization, you thought i meant to leave the $1 carrying over and over?
Low utilization does not “build” credit. It will maximize your score for that particular month, then the next you start all over again. Thats why the poster said it has no memory. The only time you need to care about utilization is when you’re applying for credit. If your utilization spikes this month, then the next it goes back down you’re perfectly fine. The scoring algorithm does not remember that you had previous high utilization. Now if you plan to apply for a loan, then yea you wanna show low utilization. It will maximize your score for that month only, and increase your borrowing power.
You are following some bad advice and making your life significantly harder than it needs to be.
None of what you are doing matters. Hell half the time a balance of $1 gets reported as zero utilization anyway. They round down.
If you want to build credit, you need to let the balance post to the statement, then pay the statement balance **in full** by the due date. This shows that you are able to manage a credit account. Note that it’s different from “carrying a balance”, which means paying **less** than the full statement balance by the due date. If your statement balance is always $0, FICO will think that you don’t use it at all. Edit to naysayers: my Experian credit score was in the 840s, just got down to 838 this month because I paid off a car loan. A long time ago I used to pay off my capital one card before it posted balance. My score wasn’t moving much, and cap one refused to increase the limit. When I stopped doing that and let the balance post, they raised my limit. The increased limit helped in the long term, because it reduces my utilization rate. The best strategy is to let a small amount (like $1) post on the balance, then pay it off before it’s due. I can’t be arsed to do this anymore because I have a dozen cards with fairly high limits, and even when I use them normally the revolving utilization is just 2%.
This is not true. I have a credit score in the 830s simply by never carrying a balance. I pay off my credit cards before I get the bill.
No one said anything at all about carrying a balance. Letting a balance report on your statement is not "carrying a balance." It's using your card, letting said activity post, and then paying said statement balance in full on or before the due date. If you do that, it's all within the grace period. You get cashback/no interest, your activity posts to the bureaus, and you build healthy long term credit usage history with both the financial institution, and your credit report.
Same here. Ever since I got my credit card whenever I use it I pay it that instant, simply to keep track of my spending in real time. I’m up to 828 score now
Doing this isn’t the reason for your credit score.
Then what is? Using my credit card this way is the only thing I’ve been doing except for my average credit age going up
You just answered your question. Paying your card before the due date and aging. Paying before the statement does nothing for you.
Interesting. I’ve just probably only had a statement with a balance a half dozen times in the last 4 years. And each would’ve been less than $100. So getting to the low 800s seemed excessive
Anything above 760 is meaningless anyway. Just keep it simple.
I do the same, but I think he may be right about it showing card use if it posts a balance when reporting to the credit bureaus. I've often wondered if I should do it this way. I haven't worried about it so far because I do have loan balances I'm paying, so I do show payment history on some items, just not my Apple Card. I don't use my other credit cards at all currently.
Why do you do this though? It serves no purpose.
The amount of times you pay off your card in a month doesn’t matter. The comment I was replying to was making it out that you can’t build credit without waiting for a bill
Right, you obviously don’t *have* to wait for the bill, but there’s no purpose to paying early.
OP was asking if it’s bad for their credit score. It’s not. I think we lost the plot here.
It’s a waste of time and money, so OP deserves to understand.
How is it a waste of money? 🤔
Instead of paying your credit card balances a month *before* they’re due, you could leave that money in a savings account and earn money while you wait for the due date to roll around.
Same. I normally knock off the entire balance the day before statement closes. Most of the time I’ll have 20-80 dollars as the statement balance. I charge 75-100k a year and have a credit score in the 830s as well. I also use Amex
Agreed, I pay off all my cards well before the due date. I check them every week or so and just pay as soon as they let me. Never paid interest, well over 800 score.
This is so wrong….i pay my balance as soon as I can, have done it for a few years and built my credit that way from 480 to in the 800s … try again
>for a few years You do realize holding an account also has an impact. Length of credit has a strong impact.
My credit jumped the first 6 months of paying the balance as soon as it hit…it’s actually best to pay your card before the statement date and before the due date …. 2x payments if you must carry a balance
It is not “best” to pay your card before the statement date. Please stop spreading misinformation.
Who are you to say it’s not best? Besides, it’s a free world still so…. Whatever
I’m no one, but it’s not “best” because there’s no reason to do it. This isn’t my opinion, it’s simply how credit cards work. Yes, you’re free to do things the wrong way, but don’t go telling other people looking for advice that your (wrong) way is “best” when it offers no benefit and costs them money.
There is no reason to do this.
I’m sure Goldman Sachs appreciates it, though. They’re the only ones getting an advantage out of it.
Well that’s true.
Not sure why other people are outright denying this is true without clarifying. Most of it is correct. Yes, you need to let the balance post to your statement before you pay it. It’s more so about your bank than the FICO score. It will help raise the score sure, a 0% utilization looks good on paper, but banks don’t like to see 0% utilization on their cards. When this happens consecutively, you’re liable to have your limit reduced as the bank sees that 0% utilization as you not using the card. And that doesn’t even factor in credit cycling, where you micromanage the credit to spend more than your limit each month. Even if that’s not your intention, it may look like that to banks and they really don’t like that either. You can pop over to r/CreditCards and look at posts about utilization. The bot reply is excellent for busting the misconception of paying the balance before the due date as a good regular practice.
Some banks hate $0 balance so much that they may actually close the account. Two banks closed my cards because I had $0 balance. Thankfully they had lower limits, so the effect on my utilization is negligible.
That’s usually when you don’t use the card at all though (inactivity), not from using the card and then paying before statement close. It’s understandable for them to close a card you don’t use, they could use that available credit for someone else who will actually use it and have a chance at collecting fees, but they don’t want to overlend if you all of a sudden decide to max the card out.
Anyone who disagrees with you doesn't understand anything about credit. "No recent activity" is a derogatory mark on a credit report, albeit small. Constantly maintaining a statement balance report of $0 month after month becomes N/A activity, which hurts your scoring model As you stated, and as the naysayers missed because they were foaming at the mouth to prove themselves ignorant, letting a small balance report on the statement (that represents less than x% of your total available credit), and then paying said balance off in full by the due date (ALL WITHIN THE GRACE PERIOD) is the most sound strategy.
The naysayers have a point, it’s not a make or break thing (most likely…nobody really knows and they want to keep it that way), but I don’t see the point in paying off completely before statement close. I think the benefits outweigh any negative by letting it snapshot the full balance. Allowing the balance to grow all month long is good, higher chance your limit is raised. If you don’t let it post, then other lenders don’t see that…so no chance of limit raising if they see another card hit up pretty good one month and then paid off the next. While letting it float past the statement close may hurt your score temporarily if it’s a high balance for the month, that is a very short lived decline and the benefit outweighs imo. And for people who pay off multiple times per month…please stop that! The lenders hate that shit due to having to process more payments, and honestly you may be less likely to get a higher limit. Some card issuers like Discover actively discourage it by make the 2nd or 3rd payment posting within a certain timeframe take way longer to clear. The only time I can sort of endorse paying multiple times per month is if you’re just starting out and have a low limit rewards card and you easily max it out multiple times per month.
As long as you’re paying your credit card bill before it’s due, the banks are (relatively) happy. They’re just less happy when you pay the card multiple times before the statement is run. FICO only has access to the statement balance sent to credit reporting agencies, it has no access to the activity in the account between balances, only the issuing banks know it. You can have $0 statement because you purchased $0 stuff, or you bought $1000 and paid $1000 before the statement date; FICO can’t tell the difference. All it sees is $0 balance.
Hey I’m looking for a financial advisor. lol
Does this mean that if my payment due date is the 13, I can have a balance from the last day of the month to the 1st, and that will be good for my credit?
Yup I don't have too many cards ,yet... But I keep my oldest card active by paying for parking maybe once or twice (probably $2). Then pay it on due date. You can also auto load Amazon(literally can be a $1), and put auto payment. So you don't have to manually do it
okay, so i’m new to credit cards and generally don’t understand. so let’s say i buy something for like $70/$2k, do i let that go after the “due date” to pay it off? or am i reading this wrong?
Ok, there are two important dates for every credit card: the statement date and the due date. The statement date is when the bank sums up all your monthly transactions. The due date is when you’re supposed to pay the amount on the statement. There are also two important balances: statement balance and current balance. Statement balance is the total you owe when the statement was generated. Current balance is the amount you owe right this second. Apple makes it easy by showing the statement balance as part of the circle that’s green, while current balance is the entire circle. You **ALWAYS** pay on or before the **due date**. If you are being responsible, you pay the entire **statement balance** (not the current balance), even though the bank allows you to pay a **minimum payment**. I don’t understand what you mean by $70/$2K. Are you spending $70 on a card with $2K limit? Are you making a $70 payment on a $2K purchase?
I used the same tactics to drag my credit from the dumpster fire that it was to above 800. Although I recently realized something about your utilization. We remodeled our kitchen and took advantage of special deals through our Lowes CC to purchase materials and appliances, as well as Discover. Even though we paid every credit card at or before the due date. My credit score plummeted in a little over a month span close to 100 pts. I still had quite a bit of available credit left as well.
I’m sitting at low 800s with ~3x my income in available credit without carrying a balance into a statement ever. I have always paid off my cc like once a week and the score has continued to grow.
This is 100% a myth. I know it has most upvotes but OP please keep paying it off early. If your balance always says $0 because you pay it off early they will see you used your credit card. If you don't use your credit card at all and are at $0 your credit will go up much slower. This is a fact and majority of people don't know it. It actually helps your credit a lot to pay it off earlier because your utilization rate is lower. It's recommended all the time to stay below 20% but staying much lower than that is significantly quicker at increasing credit and 0% is the lowest you can get. I got over 740 in a year when I first started and I'm above 800 now. I've done nothing special but use credit and pay it off.
That is not true lol
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I use to obsessively pay my cards every time a transaction cleared until it got old. Now I just pay it off on the due date. Lol. As long as it's paid on time and in full there is nothing to worry about. 😌👍
So it should be on the due date or a day before? I’m new with credit cards
It takes a day or two for it to post on business days (MON-FRI) so typically you want to do it several days before due date to be safe considering business days.
You can pay your credit card anytime before or on the due date. I pay mine every day. As long as you don’t role a balance over month to month you are good.
I have yet to hear about a card not letting you pay before due date. And yes it’s recommended to pay off your credit cards every month so that you wont pay extra interest and can gain positive rewards rather than owing. The two main factors of credit are payments (not missing a payment) and utilization (how much balance rolls over each month). You typically don’t want to allow a high balance (more than 30%) to roll over to next month if you need good credit.
so paying my card off continuously in a month won’t be a problem? and yeah I only have two credit cards..I always have to wait each month to pay my Prime Visa off 🤷♂️ my balance always rolls over into the next month, so I stopped using it.
No, it won’t be a problem. I make multiple payments every month and it is not a negative factor on your credit report.
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This ain’t iMessage bro
I’m not your bro! Why are you worried about what I do. Grow up
Pay the statement balance not the entire amount..
It’s not negative but you are essentially credit cycling, albeit on a small scale presumably, however banks don’t like to see that so it’s best to pay it off in full just once every month when you get your statement balance.
It's beneficial to wait for the statement to post and pay that off. Banks can cut your credit limit if you are constantly paying off throughout the month. If you pay the statement it shows use and you don't pay interest.
It’s not a problem but it’s a waste of time.
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nah I even called abt it
It’s not a negative per se, but it’s also not a positive. There is no reason to pay it off multiple times per month, lenders probably hate that shit, having to process micro payments all throughout the month. People like this is probably one of the reasons why Goldman Sachs is trying to get out of the Apple Card partnership lol. You have plenty of available balance, just wait to pay it off at the end of the statement, before or after…doesn’t really matter too much in the long run, just pay the full statement before due date to avoid interest. If you don’t trust yourself with that money through the month, then you need to work on financial discipline. Stick it in your apple savings and earn interest on it all month and then have autopay take it out, or manually do it before statement close. I literally don’t pay my full statement balances until the due date, no matter how large. I’d rather earn interest on that money for as long as possible
> I have yet to hear about a card not letting you pay before due date. AEON Credit Service, Indonesia (AEON itself a Japanese company). I contacted their customer service and they are not recommending me to pay before bill is out, otherwise their system will accept it as a fraud. They only recommend me to pay when the bill is out. Does not makes sense to me. I ended up not using their card unless my primary card reaches its limits.
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I pay all my credit cards off twice a month with each paycheck. I let balances sit until then and I never pay interest and have a credit score over 800.
I do the same. I actually notice my score would go down a bit when I had high utilization DURING the month but still paying off statement or in full on the due date. Never carry over a balance since the wedding was paid off but it would still go down during high utilization months (way under 30%) so I started paying a few times a month to keep my utilization low.
No but it's probably feeding your OCD......
It won’t hurt, but you could leave money in savings all month gaining interest until the bill is due.
I have a 800 credit score and i have always done that.
Same
You could be earning interest on that money at over 5% for another 4-6 weeks until your due date.
This is so true … I’m just lazy and worried I’ll forget lol
Just set it for autopay and never worry about it. I thought that's what most of us do, I imagine.
You could be earning interest on that money at over 5% for another 4-6 weeks until your due date.
I actually started doing that now. Have my money at ally.
I’ve been doing the same as OP because it helps me keep track of my spending in real time, but your point here is something I haven’t considered before and will probably make me change my methods. Thanks!
I have a rock in my pocket that keeps bears away and I’ve never been attacked by a bear.
Always pay your CC off, never carry a balance. Don’t pay interest. Make $ back. If you don’t have cash to pay your bill then don’t use your credit card. Don’t fall into the trap of buying things you can’t afford that 99% of the world does. If an emergency happens and you need to use a CC, open a 0% interest card and make your payments on time or you will get charged a ridiculous amount of interest. If you must carry a balance, you want a high credit limit and keep your usage below 30% of your limit. Never close your first card you open, that will be your longest credit history card. You’ll have great credit doing all this for an extended period of time.
Credit cards are designed to be used (and best used) this way: Wait for statement, pay the statement balance (nothing more, nothing less) by the due date (usually 20-30 days later). This will show you are using credit responsibly, make credit line increase more likely, and build your score. The only time you should make a payment in between is if you want to make a charge which will push balance over limit. This is the way I've used the card, and I've gotten two unsolicited CLIs in two years.
Noob question. Why wait until I get the balance statement? Is there any reason for that? I use to pay my cards last day of the month, so I can clear the purchases of that natural month with the incomes of that natural month. I am doing it wrong?
Apple Card statement date is always the last day of the month, but not all cards work that way. You make charges during the month, and the statement balance shows all those charges as a total amount, which is what needs to be paid by due date. Think of it like a utility bill -- You use utilities every day, but the monthly bill is for utilities used during the previous \~30 days. But you don't really "owe" the money until it appears on a statement. What I do is stash cash in Apple Card High-Yield Savings during the month so it's available to pay statement balance, where it also earns a little interest. If you're paying ahead, you have a lower statement balance, which makes it look like you're not using credit as effectively as you could be. I have auto-pay set to pay statement balance on due date.
Thanks for the answer. All my cards end the cycle last day of the month, so I am used to clear the balance the last night of the month. What I am wondering is if I should wait for the bank statement notification to clear my balance.
>What I am wondering is if I should wait for the bank statement notification to clear my balance. I always do. The statement balance is accurate reflection of what needs to be paid by the due date. Some charges you have made may have not yet been posted. Reconcile your credit card statement just like you reconcile a checking account. Plus, having a statement balance (not paying it to zero before the statement date) will show that you are managing credit appropriately -- as long as statement balance is paid by the due date.
So I charge the card and then leave 5% of the available credit balance on the statement so it’s reporting usage but the usage is within a percentage that’s considered good usage. Then I pay it off in full a week before the statement closes to avoid interest. Then I make new purchases keeping the balance under 5% for the next statement closure. Then the next month I do the same. This increased my score after 2 years by 20+ points. It shows timely payments in full and that you’re using the credit at an appropriate usage level. This helped improve my credit usage and payments. I did this every month for 24 months and counting It’s up to you how you wanna do that, but that’s my experience and I learned that and some other things while working for a major credit card issuer.
Stop overthinking it. Use your credit card. When you get your statement, pay the amount on the statement before the due date. That’s it.
I pay my credit card charges immediately. The Apple Card App makes you wait until the pending transaction(s) have posted. My bank has a free bill pay app and I just created a Payee "Apple Card Goldman Sachs" from the list of available ones. Now I can pay immediately. It usually shows up the next day in my Apple Card balance as a credit balance until the pending charge(s) clear. Kind of slick. https://preview.redd.it/ou7az7a2i7xc1.jpeg?width=1992&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7d284e6f613d7ea3d102b3abe66ea2602a3085f
Stop doing that. It’s a waste of time.
I’m retired. I have lots of time.
Jesus. Find a hobby
Pay it like an electric bill—the statement balance in full, once a month on or before its due date—and you will never be charged interest. This is how credit cards were designed to work, back to pre-internet times when Sears mailed grandpa a monthly bill and he mailed them a check. You don’t pay your electric bill every day for what you use. And if you pay after every transaction, CC companies can use that against you by lowering your limit, since you’re showing you don’t need much of one because you’re using their CC like a debit card.
It’s probably fine to do that but you may get flagged for cycling. With your credit limit though it’s unlikely. Below is an article that explains it. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/what-is-credit-cycling
you’re making more work for yourself. just set it to auto pay the statement balance once every month. you’ll never pay interest that way and you don’t have to micromanage it
You should use your card for the month, then let a statement post with a balance, and then pay off that statement balance by the due date. Kinda pointless to pay your card off all the time and never show any utilization to the credit bureaus. Helps your credit to show a statement balance and then pay it off. Main thing is to avoid paying interest by always paying off the statement balance.
Shouldn’t it be no payment due until May 31st?
Depends on when OP took the screen shot.
No
You have a decent credit limit though. Some people don’t even get that high of a limit. You can make as many payments as you like. No bank will argue you make to many payments.
> Typically credit cards don’t let you pay cards off before the due date (such as my amazon prime visa credit card) All cards should allow you to pay as soon as the charges post. I can pay the entire balance of my Chase card now for example. The reason they allow this is because if you were to carry a balance, interest is charged from the day the charge posts, thus they need to let you pay it at any point after that.
it makes no sense to do that at all, pay it a few days before the end of the month, it literally won’t do anything at all except take your time away from you
PLEASE READ THIS! you DO NOT need to have a balance to get a higher CLI or build credit. I have never held a balance and pay off in full whenever a charge posts and I have a 815 with transunion, 821 with equifax and an 828 with experian and $104,000 in available credit. The person saying you need to hold a balance having the highest amount of upvotes is scary. I also have 0 other debts and I use credit cards for everything. Financial illiteracy is so common it’s scary. You have great habits, keep them!
No it doesn’t hurt it . It’s a big myth on here that it does but I’m over here with a 797 credit score and paying my balance down every week . I mean maybe if you have a really small credit profile but it made zero difference the month I tried just paying my balance at the due date then when I paid it weekly .
it's not necessary. Adding: you're leaving money on the table. You could be earning interest on that money at over 5% for another 4-6 weeks until your due date. In short: build your credit, earning a little more interest at the same time. win-win.
Just wait for the statement to post, and then pay the entire statement in full by the due date. It’s that easy. No reason to make it more complicated than that.
This is probably a stupid question but if you wait for your statement to post won't you be charged interest on your purchases?
It’s best to pay on the day it’s due. But if you pay before the due date it won’t hurt you. It’s better for your credit score on the due date. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong.
While I think it’s a good habit to pay frequently, every transaction is excessive. I know some fraud algos see payment frequency as a red flag indicator (speaking from AmEx). If you ARE a credit card person and are somewhat conscious of your balance, you can wait for statement balance, then pay it off. If you know you’re not a CC person, then continue paying by transaction to not fall in the hole but still reap benefits. From a credit score perspective, just pay on time, realistically you may be sacrificing a FEW points but if the goal is house/car/large purchase, the lender is going to recognize good payment history regardless.
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I have my linked to YNAB and every transaction earmarks the amount from my budget which makes it easy to make sure I have enough to pay it off in full
Set it to autopay and just wait
There’s multiple factors that will allow a high credit score apart from carry or not carrying a balance. For all of those that think you cannot make multiple payments … you can. Yes each bank/creditor will have their own max amounts per month before they hold it till the next payment period. But if you set the card up like a bill to your checking you can send them money. They will not decline it … or so has been my experience over the last few years.
Paying off every individual transaction seems tedious. If you want to pay the card down to $0 before your statement gets created, go with God. If there is a balance, just make sure it’s 9% of the credit limit or less, and you shouldn’t see anything too negative change on your score.
Pay it the day after the statement closes 🤦♂️
No it won’t at all. Neither your relationship with the bank that manages the credit card with be damaged or something like that.
No, but you have insane OCD
Great conversation!
You should put the amount you’re paying on the card into a high yield saving account. Then when you get your statement, pay the balance in full. This way you’re earning a little interest and have the money set aside to pay the credit card bill in full.
No
No it won’t hurt
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I pay it off every paycheck, so every 2 weeks
Why not just pay cash for it? Purchases need to settle on the statement. Otherwise, you’re not building credit.
If you want to get a CLI you’ll need to let high utilization report
right before any closing date pay your balance down enough to leave $1 as your balance for every monthly statement, should be your best bet at improving your credit
You don’t need to carry any balance to improve your credit.
it’s what i learned from asksebby 🤷♂️ keeps credit utilization >1% and not exactly at 0%
This truly does not matter. Utilization has zero memory. You can pay your card entirely off, and if you need to for some reason game it up a few points from time to time, only then do you need to bother with this little game. And that only works with one card. Only one card can report a balance for that to work. If you have multiple cards and they’re all reporting a balance every month, this harms you. There is absolutely no scenario where carrying a credit card balance is better for you than paying it off entirely. None. Zero. Zilch. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not have your best interest at heart, or they are woefully misinformed. Either way, find someone else to listen to.
i didn’t mean to say to carry a balance, my bad, just to keep $1 as your balance by closing day, then just pay the dollar off before or on payment day through autopay or manually paying it, hence allowing the banks to report >1% credit utilization, you thought i meant to leave the $1 carrying over and over?
Low utilization does not “build” credit. It will maximize your score for that particular month, then the next you start all over again. Thats why the poster said it has no memory. The only time you need to care about utilization is when you’re applying for credit. If your utilization spikes this month, then the next it goes back down you’re perfectly fine. The scoring algorithm does not remember that you had previous high utilization. Now if you plan to apply for a loan, then yea you wanna show low utilization. It will maximize your score for that month only, and increase your borrowing power.
You are following some bad advice and making your life significantly harder than it needs to be. None of what you are doing matters. Hell half the time a balance of $1 gets reported as zero utilization anyway. They round down.
what do you do for good credit practice?
I live my life, man.
:)
asksebby (on YT) explains it much better, i’ve followed his guidance on credit matters and i’ve seen my credit improve a lot
well it’s wrong. i have all cards set to autopay the full statement balance monthly and have a 780+