When To Pay Your Credit Card Bill In Order To See A Higher Score 📈👀

Bag Baby
May 18, 2022
2 min read

Paying by the deadline would be a great idea. Lol, aside from that obvious answer, you do have a little bit of leeway in terms of when you pay off your credit card bill.

First and foremost, I personally make sure that I pay the full statement by the payment due date for a few reasons:

1. 👉🏾 It has a positive impact on your credit score

2. 👉🏾 It shows lenders that you can borrow money responsibly

3. 👉🏾 It helps you stay away from the financial stress racking up high credit card balances can bring

It’s best to allow time for your payment to process, so it’s wise to pay a few days before the statement date, paying before the statement date also keeps your utilization looking low to lenders & it can also have a positive impact on your credit score being that utilization makes up 30% of your credit score. 🧠📝

Although I pay the full statement by its due date, it’s not required that I pay the entire balance right away.

Typically—but not always—credit cards have a grace period, which is the time between your billing cycle’s completion & your statement’s due date.

During this period, you will not accrue interest on the purchases you made during the previous billing cycle. So this is a great time for multiple payments.

Making minimum payments is a cool option if you use a card with a zero percent APR (annual percentage rate) offer. You’ll still need to make the minimum payments each month to avoid late fees, you’ll have more time before they charge interest.

Paying your credit card bill early

Some people like to pay off their accounts early before the statements are even made, meaning that when the bank produces the statement, it will show a $0 balance. (Which makes their utilization look like it's at 0%)

If your target is to improve your credit score, paying early can help you lower your overall credit utilization. Utilization makes up 35% of your credit score, so keeping it low will raise your score.

Carrying a balance on a credit card

A common misconception is that carrying a balance from month to month will help you build credit, but that isn’t true. 👉🏾 What helps you build credit is keeping your utilization below 15% (most will tell you 30%. Check out this blog I wrote, which tells you why they’re wrong) & paying your bills on time.

Contrary to what I might do for myself from time to time I actually recommend people avoid carrying over a monthly balance and instead try to pay in full to avoid interest charges. 🧠📝