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When Does Discover Report to Credit Bureaus?

3 min read

Last Updated: March 26, 2025

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Key Takeaways

Discover® Card reports to the credit bureaus once a month, near the end of your billing cycle.
Discover reports your account to three major credit bureaus.
The credit bureau receives your account balance, credit limit, payment history, and more.

Are you looking to get a new line of credit? Your credit report is a key tool a lender will use to decide if they want to loan you money and at what interest rate. The data in your credit report is also used to calculate your credit score, which lenders also use to understand your ability to pay them back.

Knowing when a lender reports your credit account activity to the credit bureaus can impact how you use your credit card and manage your balance. By seeing the information in your credit report, you can understand the chances of getting new credit.

Like many credit card companies, Discover reports your account activity to three major credit reporting agencies each month. Discover Card sends the data around the time we generate your statement. This is the day your billing cycle closes. Discover^® Cardmembers can check their cardmember agreement for credit reporting agency information.

Which credit bureau does Discover report to?

Discover reports to all three major credit bureaus.

Federal law allows you to receive one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. The three credit bureaus have permanently extended the program to include one free report per week.

What information does Discover report?

Discover reports several points of data to each major credit bureau. This includes your:

Credit limit
Account balance
Payment history

Why is it important to know when your credit issuer reports your information?

Are you trying to improve (or maintain) your credit score? It can help to know when your credit card issuer reports your account activity to the credit bureaus.

The data on your credit report is what makes up your credit score. Credit scoring companies may use different reports and scoring models, so you might see slight differences in your scores. In general, five major factors impact your credit score. These credit score factors include payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, credit mix, and new credit. Of the five, payment history (about 35% of your score) and amounts owed (about 30% of your score) have the largest impact on your credit score.

The amount you owe on your credit card increases your overall debt. And your credit scores can decrease due to a high credit utilization ratio. This ratio is the percentage of available credit you’re using—determined by dividing your total credit debt by your total credit limits across all your revolving credit accounts. Revolving credit includes the accounts you borrow from, repay, and borrow from again.

What happens if your credit issuer reports your balance before you make your monthly payment? It may increase your credit utilization and lower your credit score.

Having a low credit utilization ratio may help if you’re trying to secure new credit. Lenders may check your credit score before approving you for credit and establishing your terms. A low use of your existing credit could lead to a lower interest rate and a higher amount of credit on your new offer.

Do you want to avoid having your credit card company report a high balance? Try to make one or more payments toward your balance before the end of your billing cycle. You can also hold off on larger purchases if you need more time to pay them off.

Did you know?

You can monitor and manage your Discover^® Card account with the Discover mobile app. You can schedule automatic payments which may come in handy if you want to pay down your balance before your billing cycle ends.

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The bottom line

It’s good to know when Discover and your other card issuers report your account information to the three major credit bureaus. It can help you manage your credit history and credit score. Your free credit reports might help you understand how your credit card information appears to lenders and may impact your credit scores.

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