[masraum]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

The bureaus get the balance and limit when your statement comes out. You can avoid the 30 day drop if you pay down the balance before the statement. That closed or unreported HELOC increased the balance to limit percentage. I think it’s measured as an overall percentage and only applies to revolving accounts, not installment loans, but the amount of installment loans affects your score.

So if the above is correct, the way that I read things is that the folks that receive a bill and then pay the bill on the due date presumably have their balance reported to the credit companies when the bill comes out. The only way to ensure that your monthly run up is not reported and used for calculation is to pay before the bill comes out.