When Do Credit Card Companies Report to Credit Bureaus? Answered

Short Answer

Credit card companies typically report to the major credit bureaus once a month. Exact dates vary by individual account and depend on your payment terms; companies usually report activity a few days after your statement period ends. Credit card issuers will report whether or not you made your monthly payment on time, your credit limit, and your account balance. For more on when large credit card companies like American Express and Capital One report to the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — see below.

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When Do Credit Card Companies Report to Credit Bureaus?

Credit card companies regularly report cardholder information — including on-time and missed payments, your credit limit, and your account balance — to the major credit bureaus. The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Most credit issuers report cardholder activity monthly to all three credit bureaus; sometimes your activity will be reported more frequently if there are significant changes to your account, such as a credit limit increase or zero balance.

When the credit card company will report your activity varies depending on your statement’s closing date; card issuers usually report activity a few days after the statement period ends. Credit card companies don’t typically make public the exact date(s) when it will report cardholder activity.

Information the credit card company reports may include:

Your account type
Monthly payment amount
On-time, late, or missed payments
Returned payments
Your credit limit
Your account balance
Any over-limit amounts
Your general account status

When Will You See Changes to Your Credit Score?

Reports from your credit card company can have a positive or negative impact on your credit score, depending on whether you make your payments on time and how much of your available credit you use.

Most credit card companies don’t report late payments to the credit bureaus until you are at least 30 days past due; some, like American Express, will wait until the amount remains unpaid for two consecutive statement periods (or 60 days) to report it as delinquent. You can avoid damaging your credit score by making up the missed payment within your credit card company’s grace period.

Keep in mind that reports from your credit card company to the credit bureaus may not reflect on your credit score or credit report immediately. TransUnion reports that the credit bureaus add the information to your report as soon as they receive it, but it takes time for the bureau to process the information. Also, it can take several months of on-time payments to see a significant increase in your credit score.

When Does Capital One Report to Credit Bureaus? Chase? Bank of America? etc.

Below, we’ve listed the details of the credit reporting policies of the largest U.S. credit card companies. To gather this information, we contacted customer service representatives for each issuer and reviewed the companies’ cardholder agreements online.

Note: While none of the representatives we spoke with were able to confirm exact dates, we were able to verify each company’s reporting cycle, as well as some details about the information they report.

American Express

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, payment history, any violations of the cardholder agreement for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Barclays

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account balance, account standing, any over-limit amounts, payment history
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Bank of America

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, changes in credit limit, any defaults, any over-limit amounts, payment history for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Capital One

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, balance, credit limit, payment history, any defaults for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Chase

When it reports: Monthly and any time your balance reaches $0
What it reports: Account information, account status, balance, credit limit, payment history for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Citibank

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Regular payments, late payments, returned payments, any over-limit amounts, any violations of the cardholder agreement for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Comenity Bank

When it reports: Monthly unless the card has no spending activity during the statement period
What it reports: Account status, payment history for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Credit One Bank

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account standing, balance, any changes to the account, payment history for the primary cardholder and an authorized user who is the primary cardholder’s spouse
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Discover

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, payment history for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

First PREMIER Bank

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, balance, credit limit, payment activity for the primary cardholder and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

PNC

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, payment history, any defaults
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Synchrony Financial

When it reports: Monthly; may make mid-cycle reports if you make changes to your account
What it reports: Account status, balance, late payments, missed payments, any defaults for primary cardholders and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

USAA

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, payment activity, any defaults for primary and authorized users
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

U.S. Bank

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account status, balance, credit limit, payment history for primary and joint cardholders
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion

Wells Fargo

When it reports: Monthly
What it reports: Account performance and status, amount due, balance, credit limit, payment history, any cardholder agreement violations for primary and additional cardholders
Reports to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion