When do accounts report?
Most credit card companies report data to the bureau, usually the day after or a couple of days after the statement closing date. It is vital to note that the statement closing date is different than a due date.
Statement closing dates vary for every other credit card company, as not all can have the same closing dates. As a consumer of that company, you can do one of two things; you can call and ask the exact time if you want to avoid a phone call, you can look online at the current statements, see the date, or look at the statement date fields and account for the same day or a couple of days after that. That date is when the information gets reported to the bureaus.
For example, Capital One credit card company reports on the 27th of each month. So, whatever data is found on the consumer’s car, balance limits, minimum payments, payment history, account information, and so on, all of this gets submitted to the bureau via E-OSCAR.
Hence, whatever data is found by the 27th, will be sent to the bureaus by the 28th. It varies for different companies, but the data is usually sent out a day or two after the closing date.
On a side note, data furnishers do not report to each bureau separately. They transmit the data through E-OSCAR once a month, and the bureaus will receive it on their end.
Once the data is received on the bureaus’ side, a credit person will manually input it into the credit fields or the matrix. Some old school agencies report separately to the bureaus, but most of them choose to use E-OSCAR. Furthermore, it has to be Metro 2 compliant.
Do Creditors have to report?
One of the most asked questions is, do creditors have to report, or is there any kind of legislation that requires or mandates credit card companies to report?
There is no law requiring creditors and lenders to report payment data to the bureaus. However, there is a law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act that requires the companies to report accurate information if they choose to report. Therefore, the question arises that if there is no requirement to report information and they could be liable for reporting inaccurate information, why do creditors report?
Why do the credit card companies report?
Firstly, there is consumer demand. For a long time, consumers have demanded that information be reported because they want to get credit in other places. Many years ago, there would be verbal communication and internal records between merchants, and now it has blossomed and grown as credit bureaus today. Hence, consumers wanted that data to be accessible and quickly gain credit in other locations.
Secondly, a creditor wants more data. When they were trying to collect more data, the bureaus promised creditors that they would supply credit report data to banks and lenders to help assess risk per consumer. Hence, this is why major banks and most major credit reporting companies are reporting. For example, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase are among the few that report to all bureaus. There may not be a requirement to report; however, there are a lot of incentives.
If a creditor reports, why would the information not be displayed
The account is still new
For example, a consumer applies for a credit card on 1st August and receives it on 10th August, and then makes a purchase on the same day. However, if the cut off date is the 4th of every month, this purchase will not appear on the August statement. It will appear on the 4th September statement. Therefore if the account is very new, the information will not appear in the same month.
Social security number does not match
The social security number which the credit bureaus have may not match the ones the credit card company has. There is a communication gap, and the consumer has to find out whether the mismatch lies with the bureaus or the creditor. This can easily be solved over the phone.
Report to only one or two of the bureaus; not all three
The accountant does not report to all three bureaus, but instead to only one or two. For example, the account is only being reported to Experian, but the credit is being monitored via Credit Karma. Credit Karma does not provide Experian; it provides TransUnion and Equifax and scores through Vantage 3.0. Therefore, if the account is reported to all three bureaus, then the information will be reported.