Jubeyy, let us know what you find out!
bugg03 wrote:
That's what a charge card is for IMHO. But paying bills with a credit card can also be seen as a sign of financial trouble, so how do find out if everything is above board? A FR.
This sounds sort of like the general advice that you might see in a magazine article. It can be a sign of financial problems if you used to pay cash or write checks for utility bills and so forth, and suddenly you start doing one-time payments with plastic. That does look like a potential sign of a cash shortage.
What the others are talking about is different: this is signing up to have automatic payments for a lot of your regular expenses done via CC. The CC company is happy because they're getting a cut (through transaction fees) with every monthly payment, and you're happy because you're getting whatever the rewards are. I suppose the utility or whatever is less happy, as they are now paying these fees, but on the other hand, they are still getting your regular payments. Same deal with using plastic for groceries, gas, etc: if this is your financial tactic to help track expenses, get rewards, and streamline your payments, it's not a desperate, I'm-out-of-cash action.
Making sure that you're in the second category instead of the first is why AmEx and others frequently soft your credit reports. This lets them know that you're still paying all your bills, and that your debt isn't creeping (or exploding) up.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
