Credit Card Utilization Question

College Life
1

I know credit card utilization is a huge part of building credit. My question is if I had a credit limit of 3000 and I spent $1500 per month, could I avoid having a 50% utilization ratio? I heard from some sources that if I pay off my money immediately then I can avoid having balance build up. For example instead of letting 1,500 dollars build up then pay it back in full, I could pay back 10 times a month, each time my balance goes to 150. I would spend the same amount and pay back the same amount in one month but I would avoid letting my balance exceed $150 and thus keep my utilization ratio at 10%. According to nerdwallet author LINDSAY KONSKO

"Find out when your issuer reports to the credit bureaus
In general, most credit card issuers report your balance and payment activity to the credit bureaus once per month. However, this doesn’t necessarily coincide nicely with when your bill is due. If your issuer reports a few days before the end of your billing cycle, you’ll consistently look like you’re carrying a high balance – even if you’re going to pay it off in just a few days!

But this can be solved by placing a quick call to your card issuer’s customer service line and asking when they report to the credit bureaus. Simply pay off as much of your balance as you can in advance of that date every month and you might see a jump in your score.

Nerd note: I called my credit card issuer’s customer service line to test out this trick and found that they report to the credit bureaus on the last business day of each month. Since my bill is usually due on the 10th, I’m sure my credit utilization looks pretty high every time the credit bureaus collect information about me. I’ll be paying as much of my bill as possible before the last business day of the month from now on."
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-utilization-improving-winning/

I just want to confirm what she said is true.

2

edit:keep my utilization ratio at 5%*

3

Is there a limit on number of payments a month?

Sounds like a lot of work.

4

There is no limit to the times you can pay each month.

5

My card:

My pay period is the 21st to the 21st. Lets say I have a 1000 dollar bill on November 21st. I could make a 500$ payment on November 20th and it would deduct from my latest balance. (It will subtract from any past due debt first. If no debt, the 500$ will go toward my current pay period which has not ended)

I have 3 weeks before the actual money is do, so I need to pay in total 1000 dollars by December 15th.

Keep your card paid off to keep you from getting charged interest and late fees.

TIP: Try to keep all your activity on one account. I have two. One for my car loan (lower interest), and one for my credit card (better rewards). My parents cosigned my credit card when I was a teenager, and I still can’t open my own after two years of credit. This is because I have my paycheck come to my car loan account every two weeks, so my credit card company doesn’t know how I’m paying off my card every month (I withdraw say 1000 cash every month from my other bank and deposit to pay credit card haha).

6

I can’t answer your question as to whether it is true, but I trust nerdwallet as a reputable source. It sounds reasonable to me. Besides, there is NO downside to this method, so why not? My D does this all the time–pays off anything she charges right away.