0

I feel like this may result in the same unanswered question but I'm gonna ask it anyway just in case we can get a definitive answer.

Does paying off your credit card (before a statement is generated) really have a neutral affect (as opposed to positive or negative) on your credit rating? I see many schools of thought for this, and no real answer.

One side argues that if you pay off your balance before a statement is generated, then your utilization is 0% and your payment history is empty because there's nothing to report to the bureau. Because of this the system assumes you are not using your card, and your score does not increase. (but neither does it decrease.) That seems like it assumes the system is pretty naive.

The other side suggests that as long as you pay it off, the system doesn't care about it being stuck at 0% and a balance of 0, but rather "Paid as Agreed" and boosts your credit score based on that. This way it wouldn't matter if you pay off the card an hour after you used it, or on the due date.

Here's a quote from "thepointsguy.com"

If you choose to pay your credit card account before your statement actually closes, you’ll have a balance of $0. This will then be reported to the credit bureaus. The next month, you do the same thing and again have $0 reported. If you continue on this cycle, your amounts owed (commonly referred to as your credit utilization rate) will remain at 0%, but your payment history will also be nonexistent. Think about it; because you pay your balance before your issuer can even report your balance to the credit bureaus, it appears that you are simply not utilizing your credit card account(s). Remember that your credit score is a reflection of how well you manage the credit line that has been extended to you, so if it appears like you aren’t using your card, there’s no reason for your score to go up.

Can anyone shed any real light on this?

Many Thanks

JoeTaxpayer
  • 172,694
  • 34
  • 299
  • 561
simonw16
  • 101
  • 1

1 Answers1

1

While I'm no specialist in the area I've been reading about the same thing beacuse I plan to move to Canada next year. For what I've seen you should keep a low overall utilization of your credit balance, below 35%. You should always pay your bills on time but you may want to pay some of it beforehand so you don't exceed the 35%.

For example: Say you have a 1,000 CAD limit on your credit card and your monthly debits are around C$ 200.00. Then you wanna make a purchase of C$ 500.00, bringing that month total to C$ 800.00. It may be intersting to pay some of it before the end of the month.

Other than that, paying before the actual date should note influence your ratings. The Canadian government have a good site with tips and informationa about it here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/credit-reports-score/improve-credit-score.html

And I would also recommend seeing this video/channel even if not specific for Canada:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0LHCMcv05Y

That's the closest I got to your question, hope it is helpful.

Pharaoh
  • 11
  • 2