What do PIF accounts report as every month? Does it show 0% utilization?

[Tmk5748]

I have a 1K CL on an AMEX card that I normally never use. I used about $400 of it and let it carry over to the next month. My FICO went up about 5 points so I'm wondering if that could be the reason. They would report that as 40% utilization, right? This month I paid it off. So hopefully next month will go back to reporting as 0%.

I have another card that I PIF every month. The limit is 10K. Since I pay in full every month, that is reporting at 0% utilization, right? Regardless of how much my statement balance is before I pay in full?

 

Also, will my upcoming score on 9/27 reflect the current balances or the month before?

 

 

[Konrad2012]

Search threads on  $2 trick.   It will answer your questions.  In short, having a small balance report on a single card will give you a score boost over $0 reporting on all cards.  In your case, the score bump probably would have been larger if 1% reported vs 40% vs 0%.

[Llewelyn]

1 hour ago, Tmk5748 said:

 Since I pay in full every month, that is reporting at 0% utilization, right? Regardless of how much my statement balance is before I pay in full?

 

 

No.  Most lender  will report your statement balance.

[RocketGoBoom]

13 hours ago, Llewelyn said:

No.  Most lender  will report your statement balance.

 

This ...

 

To the OP, if you want to maximize your FICO score short term, check which day of the month your statement closes. Log in and pay it down to 1% of the credit limit on the day before the statement closes. That will maximize your FICO score for the month.

 

If you are not applying for anything new, then don't worry about it.

 

If you are going for an auto loan, mortgage or a new credit card, then you can prepare by doing these short term tricks with your credit cards. You can see a quick large boost to your FICO scores by going from 40% utilization to 1%.

 

 

[takeshi]

In addition to the above, you can look at your reports to see how your cards are reporting.

 

On 9/22/2018 at 10:50 PM, Tmk5748 said:

Also, will my upcoming score on 9/27 reflect the current balances or the month before?

Scores can be generated at any point in time.  The score on a given date will reflect whatever is on the report at that point in time.

 

Your scores will never reflect current balances as reports don't have access to current balance.  They can only reflect reported balance.  Creditors report to CRA's.  CRA's do not access your account information such as current balance.

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by takeshi