Synching all of my credit card due dates

Introduction

It dawned on me the other day that I now have too many credit cards to keep track of.  I try to pay down all of my credit cards before the balances are due to show that I have low utilization on my credit report.  I used to put all the due dates into my Google Calendar, which would then alert me a couple of days ahead so that I could pay it off in time.  However, it got to be an almost daily annoyance since there seemed to be a new card closing ever day.  That’s why this weekend, I made the conscious effort to call them all up and have them all close on or around the same day.

Which day should you choose?

I went ahead and picked the 10th of each month.  My rationale for that is the last day for Serve/RB loads are at the end of each month.  Sometimes it takes a couple of business days (maybe up to a week) for Serve/RB to send payments to Barclays.  That’s why if all the accounts are fully loaded by the 31st, and I submit a payment on the 1st, then it should arrive by the 10th before my statement closes.  It really doesn’t matter which day you choose though.  You just want to have them all close on the same day so you actually remember.

Banks

• American Express – I called on my AMEX Platinum card first, and the CSR was able to change it.  She then went through my other 5 AMEX cards and changed the date on all of them.  This call took longer than expected because she was changing my payment date at first when I wanted her to change my statement close date instead.
• Bank of American / FIA – The CSR was able to change my date for both my FIA and BOA AS cards
• Capital One – My first Spark statement hadn’t closed yet, so I needed to call back next month to change it.  Oddly, I could only change it to the 11th and not the 10th.  Close enough
• Citi – Pretty painless call as well.  I only changed the dates on my DC, ATT, and TYP cards.  I didn’t bother to change it for my HH or Dividend cards since I don’t put any spend on them.  If I do put spend on them, I’ll HOPEFULLY make sure to pay them off in the same month.  In hindsight, I probably should have changed them too.
• Discover – The CSR told me I could change my DUE DATE to the 5th and since the cycle date closes 5 days after the due date, then my statement would close on the 10th.
• Barclays – My current close date was already on the 15th, so she could not move it to the 10th.  She told me to wait until the 17th to call back so the system would allow her to change it.
• Chase – Once again, they told me they could change the DUE DATE and the cycle date would close 3 days later, so naturally I told her to change the due date to the 7th.  She was able to change my personal cards, and had to transfer me to the business line for my Ink and United Biz cards.  On the Ink card, it seems the statement closes 7 days after the DUE DATE, but on my United card, it was 3 days later.  I was a bit confused there.  I have a feeling I’ll need to call back to verify everything.

Conclusion

I’ll have to double check all my statements next month to verify all of the changes had been made.  I’ll also need to call back Cap1 and Barclays to make their changes.  I didn’t bother with my Macy’s or Kohl’s card, but I feel I should get them synched as well.  Getting all of your credit card statements to close on the same day will help you pay them off before the statement closes, thus helping your credit score.