Be Honest: Have you Carried a balance on a CC?

[TiggerDat]

Yes, No, and Yes.

Yes, I used to.

No, I don't anymore.

Yes, three of my accounts have a revolving balance.  (yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.)  My niece, My sister, and my other sister.  Each of them have a card of mine that has a revolving balance.  I won't loan them money because I won't charge them interest, but I will let use an account of mine even if it has interest!  Fortunately, at the moment most of them don't have due to being new or promotional balance transfer rates.

[flawesome]

Not even once.

[takeshi74]

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@BeeH11 wrote:

Have you Carried a balance on a CC?

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Of course.

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@BeeH11 wrote:

Other than paying interest? Why is not PIF such a bad thing?

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Paying interest is an issue but it's not just paying the interest itself.  Many are here not only for building/rebuilding but to maximize rewards.  Paying interest easily kills any rewards earned.

The bigger issue is carrying balances and risking the slide into further debt.

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@BeeH11 wrote:

For those of you who have read some of my prior posts, you know I have high utilization but that's about to change. Should I be worried that my credit card companies are going to close my accounts or cut my limits once I pay off the balances?

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No sense in worrying IMO.  If they're going to take adverse action against you then they're going to take adverse action against you.  You still need to get out of your debt and it's not worth carrying the debt and paying the interest to avoid balance chasing since your utilization is already high.  Get it down and then worry about it if it happens.

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@BeeH11 wrote:

I would also like to know if any of you carried a (high) balance for a while, then paid it down and the account was closed or limit cut.

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Yup.  Been there, done that.  Don't want to ever be there again.  High utilization will seriously constrain you.  It's the second biggest factor (Amount Owed in the link below):

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

[Anonymous]

I'd like to not be carrying balances, but after having surgery and some unexpected vehicle issues a couple of months ago, it's unavoidable.  The goal is to pay off most, if not all, of my cards if not monthly, every 3 months.  Right now, I'm carrying a high balance on two of my major cards, along with my CareCredit, Firestone and Walmart.  I'm working on paying those down and hope to be back on track in the next few months if all goes well.

[Focused10]

Before I became responsible with my credit, I did. I've learned. The people that carry balnaces aren't logging onto this site. I now carry them on my 0% cards. They will be paif off by the time the 0% ends, which is well over  a year from now.

[hyp0luxa]

I have had to do it in the past, when I only had 1 card with no 0% period

Always paid it off in 2-3 months max

Now I only do it while on 0% and make sure to pay off a full statement cycle before 0% expires

to reset grace period

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'd like to not be carrying balances, but after having surgery and some unexpected vehicle issues a couple of months ago, it's unavoidable.  The goal is to pay off most, if not all, of my cards if not monthly, every 3 months.  Right now, I'm carrying a high balance on two of my major cards, along with my CareCredit, Firestone and Walmart.  I'm working on paying those down and hope to be back on track in the next few months if all goes well.

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Unfortunately life has a way of disrupting our plans doesn't it?

All we can do is keep moving forward.

[Anonymous]

For 0% offers, of course. I'll spend up that balance up to almost the CL (or as much as makes sense), pay minimums every month, and then pay it off a day before the 0% offer ends.  I've never had any adverse action taken as a result.

I don't really seek out 0% APR offers anymore, since the benefit I gain by keeping that amount on deposit is so low. But if a card offers something else of value, then, sure I'll carry a balance and pay it off the day before the 0% goes away. Right now, I've got about 10k rolling on my BarclayCard Arrival+ (down from $12k; I paid it down a bit just to give myself some breathing room).  In the case of the Arrival+, it made sense to spend it up as at 2% CB it was my best "everything-else" card.  So the 0% APR is just icing on the cake.

A couple of years back, I actually paid credit card interest (shudder!). One of my cards ran a 1% APR deal, and this was back when I was getting a deposit rate of 5%+, so of course I rode that one as far as I could.

Chris.

[1GaDawg85]

I carry balances....mostly pay them off, if I don't pay ALL of them, I pay at least one then 3-5x over minimum on the rest till all have been knocked out

[Involver]

I unknowingly let balances report all the time prior to the information I learned from this and other sites.  In retrospect my scores were taking a serious beating because of it.

I'm currently caring a decent-sized balance on a 0% promotion through 2016.  It's the only balance I will let report as everything else I will PIF.