Discover will typically report to credit bureaus between 2 to 3 days after the payment due date specified on your credit card statement.
The date on which Discover will report to the credit bureaus can be referred to as either the report date, closing date or statement date. Discussions around credit card payments typically interchange between these terms.
The statement date occurs when the current billing cycle ends, after which the new billing cycle commences the following day.
A billing cycle which usually varies in length, however they typically span around 30 to 45 days.
Discover is also known to report off-cycle, usually mid-cycle, which typically happens only in the early stages of opening a credit card.
From then on, they will report monthly, unless drastic concerning changes occur in your spending habits, in which case the bureaus are notified off-cycle in order to let other creditors know.
Should you wish for Discover to report in the case where you have paid off a balance off-cycle, you may be able to contact them and submit a request to do so.
Also, you may be able to contact Capital One and make a request to change the due date in order to trigger a desired change in report date.
Knowing when Discover will report to the credit bureaus may prove useful in helping improve your credit report and therefore your credit score as well.
Will Discover report to the credit bureaus on the first month?
If your account has just been opened, Discover will typically not report on your first closing statement.
They will, however, begin reporting from the second statement and thereafter.
Will the credit bureau update my credit report immediately?
Once Discover reports your credit card account to the bureaus, each bureau will typically not update your credit report immediately.
Sometimes a credit bureau will expect to take a few days to as long as 2 months before they update your report.
In addition, each credit bureau will update their records independently of each other, so your credit report from each one will not necessarily contain the same information at any given time.
Does Discover report to the credit bureaus on weekends?
Discover does not explicitly disclose whether they report to the credit bureaus on weekends, however, they are typically not known to.
They will report to the credit bureaus 2 to 3 days after your credit card payment is due.
So if your credit card payment due date falls on a Thursday, the third day would be Sunday, which would mean that you would have to wait until Monday before Discover sends their report.
Note however that once the credit bureaus receive the information from Discover, they usually update your credit report any day of the week.
This does not happen immediately, as it varies from bureau to bureau.
Discover will post the payment before midnight on the same day if funds are received by 5pm (Eastern) Monday to Sunday, otherwise anything sent after 5pm will be posted the following day.
Discover it® members have until midnight instead of 5pm if they want payment to be posted on the same day.
If your due date happens to fall on a Sunday, it will still be considered on time if payment is made before 5pm (or midnight in the case for Discover it® members).
Remember due date is when you want to pay the minimum amount. Any payment after 5pm on the due date or less than the minimum will most likely incur to avoid late fees or delinquencies.
Setting up scheduled payments may be something to consider. Remember some cards have very high interest rates, so it’s adamant that you pay them on time to avoid interest compounding month over month.
Is it beneficial to know when Discover will report to credit bureaus?
Having knowledge of when Discover will report to bureaus can be beneficial if you want a particular credit utilization ratio to be reported.
In particular, it is common for consumers to pay their credit card balance down to zero (or to an amount that minimizes their utilization rate) at the end of every billing cycle.
This demonstrates that they can reliably service their debt, and in turn it will result in an improvement to their credit score.
This also has the added benefit of decreasing interest payments in the long run.
Most consumers may also have multiple credit cards with Discover and perhaps other banks which they exploit by using the AZEO (All Zero Except One) method in another attempt to improve their credit score.
This method involves keeping one credit card between 1% to 8% credit utilization and all others at zero balance.
Of course throughout any billing cycle, you may well be using all of your credit cards, which means your balance will constantly be changing.
The theory behind the AZEO method is to reduce the balance on all credit cards to zero except for one, before the end of the statement due date.
Doing so has the effect of improving one’s credit score.
Consumers usually prefer to implement the AZEO method just before applying for another credit card or loan, in order to raise their credit score and decrease their likelihood of receiving adverse reasons for denial of credit.
If you have several credit cards with Discover or other banks, knowing when each one will report to the credit bureaus will allow you to coordinate your payments depending on your desired outcome.
If you are intending to apply for more credit cards, a mortgage or personal loans from Discover in the future, it is vital that you maintain a good credit score with the bureaus from which they pull.
What happens if you use your Discover credit card after due date and before reporting date?
If you use your Discover credit card after the due date and before the reporting date, the creditor will report your remaining balance as at the due date.
For example, if your payment is due on the 12th, and you pay your full balance on the 11th, you should be able to use your card on the 13th, without affecting what the creditor reports to the bureaus.
In other words, whatever balance you have at the statement closing date, is what will be reported to the credit bureaus.