Firestone cfna not reporting? Beware..

[CCsAreEvil]

I opened up a Firestone CC account and had charged around $1k since I had 0% financing for 6 months.. so at month 5, I paid the full balance.. up until then, I had been paying the minimum payments monthly. They would correctly show the credit balance promptly around each statement date. They do report the total credit limit, too.

I've learned the hard way that when you pay off the balance, they do NOT update the 3 CRAs as such. It stays showing with my last balance of several hundred dollars and stays that way. You have to charge something small like an oil change so they update the balance. Somewhat of a minor inconvenience.

[frogger]

Somewhat of a minor inconvenience.

Actually, it's somewhat of an error in their computer. Reporting is done based upon "status", ie, current, 30 days late, 60 days late, paid in full (pif), etc.

What is going on is that their paid in full status is not reporting. This is an error that is their problem and is an easy fix, however they probably do now know about it.

Contact Firestone and the credit reporting agency. They probably don't have a clue that the pif status is not reporting.

(And yes, it happens.) I know that for fact.

[Flamingo]

What is showing is the highest balance that was at one time on the card even though your balance is now zero. That will stay there for several years unless you surpass it with a higher amount.

[frogger]

On a credit account, it should show:

Credit limit
High balance
Current balance

If it still showing the higher balance as the amount due on the credit report, then the creditor does not have their status set up correctly for reporting.

[CCsAreEvil]

What is showing is the highest balance that was at one time on the card even though your balance is now zero. That will stay there for several years unless you surpass it with a higher amount.

I don't know if I was clear, but it has always shown my credit limit as $1,900 on the CRAs even when I first opened the card. Then, when I did about a $1k charge, it did properly show that as the "balance owed". The CL still showed $1,900. But now that I've paid the card off, it's still showing my last balance (owed)from the last statement's owed balance. I will give it 30 days to see if they end up updating my balance owed to $0.

Lastly, since I have no balance right now, this did not trigger the usual monthly CC statement (there is none).. so this might be partially why it's not updating the CRAs.

Edit: to be clear, when I go to cfna's web site, it properly shows my balance owed as $0.. it's just not updating the CRAs.

[justbroke]

CFNA may be one of those creditors that don't report when they bill! There are some creditors that report only on a certain day of the month (such as the 30th). Even if your bill runs on the 5th... the report won't update until the 30th!

Did I mention that I don't like those types of creditors?

[IBroke]

Although I don't have a Firestone-card with CFNA, I do have a card with them that is accepted at a few local car-dealerships. So far, they always reported the statement-balance. At one credit-bureau, however (either Experian or Equifax), they don't report the credit-limit - only the high credit balance. In addition, they don't report every month in case you have a $0 balance. They updated my balance to $0 when I paid off my balance a couple of months ago - but until I used the card again, the payment-history showed "No Data" for the months the card was paid off and not in use.

Other than that, I'm quite satisfied with them. After I paid off my initial balance, they increased my CL from $1,000 to $1,600.

[jetsfan2010]

I learned the hard way about the high balance issue, and its impact on credit. You want to keep the statement balance below that 30 percent mark for credit reporting purposes.

[IBroke]

I learned the hard way about the high balance issue, and its impact on credit. You want to keep the statement balance below that 30 percent mark for credit reporting purposes.

Actually, the higher your "high balance" is reported, the better for your credit-score because in case they don't report the credit-limit, this is what is used to calculate your overall utilization.

[CCsAreEvil]

Update: They did reflect the payoff balance. It took longer than usual.

[SMinGA2]

I have noticed if the balance is $0 and $0 payment due - there was no statement issued & no update to the credit bureaus. Not a major issue for me. I drive so much, I get an oil change every ~6 weeks or so. I generally wait and let the small balance report then pay by due date. Keeps it reporting, but only a small balance.