Dear All, I pay off my credit card (which I use for all purchases, due to guarantee on items I purchase & better control in my own experience than using cash) BEFORE I get the bill. I check online for the amount due, & then add $20-$30 so that I can get into the next billing cycle with a credit.  Well, my FICO score (which my cc company posts on the webpage) keeps going down.  I suppose that they penalize you for paying in advance!  How absurd!  (Since I am not allowed to save my money -- public benefits penalize saving -- I am not losing any return on my cash.)  PS  I'm not planning to purchase anything for which I'd need a loan, so the FICO score is only of academic interest.

Comments, anyone?  Yours in Him, Deb

Is it that particular credit card company that penalizes you for paying early or is that a regular practice with all of them?. If it is only that company maybe you should switch to a different card? You would think that paying early would raise your score or at least not change it. E

 It must be that particular company. My credit card won't allow me to pay anything more than the balance.

Call the credit card company and ask. There are a lot of bizarro things with credit reports anyway.

my hub and I applied for a mortgage recently (then decided not to buy the house) and despite the fact that every financial thingy we have (loan, cards, bank accounts) are JOINT ones, my score was quite a bit higher than his. And the reasons they gave for our scores not being higher were entirely different! So who knows? It's almost like they use a Magic 8-ball to come up with this stuff. Also before we applied for this loan, I canceled about 30 credit cards (many we had never applied for) between the two of us (actually most were ones we had not applied for), and while some people told me that I had just skewered my credit score, it ended up being higher than two years earlier when I had checked my credit report. So....well, I guess I am suspicious of the credit scores and feel a great deal of anger that the scores don't make sense yet if they are low, the scores will cost us in higher interest.

Aargh!

Pam

Thank you, Pam & All, I will check with the card issuer, Washington Mutual.  (That's also my bank.)  Thanks for the nudge!  Yours in Him, Deb

Personally, I feel the credit card industry is in kahoots with the credit reporting companies.  If you close any accounts, you get hurt, if you open any new accounts, you get hurt.  If anyone inquires about your credit, you get hurt, if you join a Debt Reduction Plan, you get hurt, if you pay off your cards early, you get hurt and of course if you file bankruptcy you get hurt.  And what I really don't understand is how does having a mortgage for thousands of dollars improve your credit rating as opposed to renting and living at the same residence for over ten years?  I choose NOT to buy a house, I have no desire to be a homeowner and it hurts my credit rating!  I really don't understand it!

Deb, I am confused...are you saying that your credit card company gets your FICO score from the credit bureau and tells you that score, which is determined by the bureau, on your credit card webpage?  This doesn't seem correct to me.  What is probably more likely to be happening is that the credit card company is giving you their own 'score' (when I worked for a bank's mastercard division it was called a 'beacon' score) rather than your FICO as shown on the credit report.  If what I think is happening is what's going on, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about, since a credit card's reporting is only a small portion of what the bureau takes into account in composing your FICO.

 And, absurdly enough, as you mention, the credit card company does not like you to pay in advance - they want their interest money!!

 Have a great day!

Jacquie

Dear Jacquie, WaMu CALLS it a FICO score, so who knows what it is?  A "beacon" score does sound more like it, though.  Yours in Him, Deb

I found some info that pertains to those who pay their balance every month...

" Remember that the credit bureaus and your credit scores don't distinguish between balances you pay off and those you carry month to month; the balance that's reported to the bureaus is typically the one that shows on your most recent monthly statement."

Read more at MSN Money 

 Getting credit just gets more complicated. Babs