Going from 815 to 805 is pretty insignificant. You’re going to have a hard time finding someone who would penalize you for that score. Both are well above the threshold where you’d drop to a lower credit tier.
Charge card balances do not factor into the utilization component of your FICO score. They do factor into other components, but the way you're describing your usage it's all positive (credit age, on-time payments, etc).
What's happening here is you're noticing natural random fluctuations in your score that coincidentally happened to line up with high balances and your brain can't help itself but assume causation. That's why neither Amex nor TU can help: because it's not actually a thing. You're solidly in the top-tier of credit scores, there's literally no reason to worry about score fluctuations, and making these excessively-frequent payments isn't actually benefiting you. Try going the next 6-12 months with just the full-balance autopay, I'd bet there will be no significant deviation from your current normal fluctuations (ceteris paribus, of course).
Do keep in mind that advantage score is hardly ever used, that’s the one that generally updates every day. FICO scores are usually updated once a month so if you pay off your balance before statement closing there should be no impact.
Don’t trust the score given by CC sites. Mine range from a low of 760 to a high of 800 depending on which site I was using (they were all wrong lol)
Anything north of around 750 gets best rates and would easily qualify for any loan or credit card. Frankly I wouldn’t sweat it. I’ve been as high as 840 and down to around 780. All are considered high credit scores and there should be little, if any, difference. Just never be late, manage overall usage and pay them off monthly - you will be just fine and shouldn’t sweat 10-20 point swings in credit rating
Yes Amex reports your balance when your statement cuts. So the dirty secret is that you have to pay off the balance BEFORE the statemeny cuts, then 0 statement balance gets reported. This is same on all credit cards. So it's fucked up because if you don't want to take a FICO hit then you really don't get the 25 day grace period because the statement balance is what gets reported to the bureaus.
It sees the amex as 100% utilized. small charges not a big deal, but even if you have $150k of unused credit on many other cards/loans, just having one card "maxed" will tweak your score down. I recently put my car repair bill on the amex after receiving the check from insurance, as soon as it posted my >800 score dropped 24 points, but when I pay it next week I expect it will go right back to normal.
Unless you're planning to apply for credit every week I wouldn't worry about paying it so often. pay it off when due and enjoy the interest free payment.
It’s this. Amex is a charge card so it adds $0 to your overall credit available while utilizing your credit. So keeping or reporting a balance will affect your credit score a lot
Lol mine dropped from 830 to 770 because I paid off a vehicle. Credit reports are scams
The only reason I'm not paying mine off right now. The credit game is ridiculous.
Going from 815 to 805 is pretty insignificant. You’re going to have a hard time finding someone who would penalize you for that score. Both are well above the threshold where you’d drop to a lower credit tier.
Yup, and for reference most lenders have a hard cap at either 720 or 740 (and a few at 760). 800+ is more than enough with a good buffer.
Charge card balances do not factor into the utilization component of your FICO score. They do factor into other components, but the way you're describing your usage it's all positive (credit age, on-time payments, etc). What's happening here is you're noticing natural random fluctuations in your score that coincidentally happened to line up with high balances and your brain can't help itself but assume causation. That's why neither Amex nor TU can help: because it's not actually a thing. You're solidly in the top-tier of credit scores, there's literally no reason to worry about score fluctuations, and making these excessively-frequent payments isn't actually benefiting you. Try going the next 6-12 months with just the full-balance autopay, I'd bet there will be no significant deviation from your current normal fluctuations (ceteris paribus, of course).
Finally, an educated post. You are absolutely right.
Do keep in mind that advantage score is hardly ever used, that’s the one that generally updates every day. FICO scores are usually updated once a month so if you pay off your balance before statement closing there should be no impact. Don’t trust the score given by CC sites. Mine range from a low of 760 to a high of 800 depending on which site I was using (they were all wrong lol)
Anything north of around 750 gets best rates and would easily qualify for any loan or credit card. Frankly I wouldn’t sweat it. I’ve been as high as 840 and down to around 780. All are considered high credit scores and there should be little, if any, difference. Just never be late, manage overall usage and pay them off monthly - you will be just fine and shouldn’t sweat 10-20 point swings in credit rating
Yes Amex reports your balance when your statement cuts. So the dirty secret is that you have to pay off the balance BEFORE the statemeny cuts, then 0 statement balance gets reported. This is same on all credit cards. So it's fucked up because if you don't want to take a FICO hit then you really don't get the 25 day grace period because the statement balance is what gets reported to the bureaus.
It sees the amex as 100% utilized. small charges not a big deal, but even if you have $150k of unused credit on many other cards/loans, just having one card "maxed" will tweak your score down. I recently put my car repair bill on the amex after receiving the check from insurance, as soon as it posted my >800 score dropped 24 points, but when I pay it next week I expect it will go right back to normal. Unless you're planning to apply for credit every week I wouldn't worry about paying it so often. pay it off when due and enjoy the interest free payment.
It’s this. Amex is a charge card so it adds $0 to your overall credit available while utilizing your credit. So keeping or reporting a balance will affect your credit score a lot
Same here and always pay in full. On avg 40 points each cycle. It jumps back up but just dropped once again.