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Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

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jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?


@DVH1980 wrote:

I dont use it either. I prefer to do it manually. I use an excel spreadsheet for all my bills/cc's and sit down the day after payday and pay all my bills. I make payments on my credit cards twice a month just to play it safe.

 

Even if I did use autopay, Id still feel compelled to log in to make sure it went through and that kind of defeats the convinience factor.


+100

 

that is exactly what I do, I try to make more than the minimum payment on each card each payday. 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 11 of 32
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I have autopay set up to PIF on all (6) of my credit cards, for several reasons.  I like the convenience.  It protects me from my own forgetfulness.  And I like to wait until the due date to pay, so my money is sitting in my interest bearing checking account as long as possible.  But waiting until the last minute can be risky if something prevents you from making a payment (web site goes down, something pops up in life, etc.), so autopay eliminates that risk.  It also prevents me from making a mistake (I process a payment, but accidentally don't click the confirm button, etc.).

 

I use direct deposit, and all my bills are set to pay automatically.  The only thing I have to manually do is spend what's left over.  Smiley Happy

Message 12 of 32
OilFieldEngineer
Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I use auto pay for all my regular monthly bills except my credit cards. I like to control what amounts and most of them I pay in full but on occasions I carry a balance if I made a sizeable purchase. 

Current Scores 738 EQ (FICO 02/15) 745 EX (Lender Pull FICO) 768 TU (FICO 02/15)

4% Utilization on 180k Total Available Creditlines

AMEX Platinum - NPSL, AMEX HH - 2.5k, BofA Travel Rewards - 25K, BofA 123 Cash Rewards - 15K, BofA Amex - 15K, Barclay Black Card - 10K, Chase United Club - 9.6K, Chase Sapphire Preferred - 14k, Discover More - 7.5K, Citi Presitge - 20K, Nationwide Bank - 7.5K, Dillard's - 5K, JCP MasterCard - 12K, Capital One Venture - 3K, Capital One Quicksilver - 10k, Wells Fargo - 6K, Lowe's - 10K,
Message 13 of 32
Cleanmachine
Frequent Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I pay all my credit cards the day after closing.

 

If you carry a balance on your cards and using auto-pay, you are paying interest on the interest already charged on your balance.

 

 

 

 

Message 14 of 32
SoCalBound
Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I have set up a spreadsheet listing expenditures and calendar listing all due dates and closing dates.  If I intend to carry a balance I know how long til I pay it off.    Then I pay 1-2 times a month depending on statements and when I use the cards.    I manage about 7-8 cards this way. I prefer this over autopay

Zync NPSL, BCP ($2000), Chase United ($2000) Chase Amazon ($1500), Chase Freedom ($3000), Discover More ($2000), Paypal Extras ($5000), Citi Forward ($2000), Orchard $2000, Amazon ($5000)
Pre-App Scores: TU98 779, TU04 797, EQ 682, EX 788 (Amex) 8/12
Message 15 of 32
Eschaton
Regular Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I am enrolled in auto pay for all of my credit cards and all of my bills, but I don't fully trust it and I pay anyways. It's always good in case, for whatever reason you didn't push it through manually

Capital One Journey (12/2010) $750 | Chase Freedom (03/2012) $3500 | American Express Zync (03/2012) NSPL | Amazon Prime (08/2018) $6000 | Chase Sapphire Preferred (10/2018) $8000 | Bank of America Cash Reward 10/2018 $8000 | Chase Freedom Unlimited 06/2019 $2700

Experian score: 793 (9/2018)
Message 16 of 32
Imua
Frequent Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?


@webhopper wrote:
I am enrolled in autopay, as a backup. Generally I pay way early so that I don't have to worry about being late.

Same here.  Autopay set up for minimum amt due.

 

 

Message 17 of 32
DaveSignal
Valued Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?


@Imua wrote:

@webhopper wrote:
I am enrolled in autopay, as a backup. Generally I pay way early so that I don't have to worry about being late.

Same here.  Autopay set up for minimum amt due.

 

 


+1.  It is always a better idea to be prepared for the worst.  Failing to plan = a plan to fail.

EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Amex ED $19.5k - BoA Travel Rewards $15k - CSP $5k - SDFCU EMV $15k - NFCU goRewards $20k - Barclays Arrival $6.5k
Message 18 of 32
CruzImperial
Established Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

Not yet, mainly because if I use the autopay option, I wouldn't know how much money I have left to play with. I prefer to do it manually and make sure I have X amount of money available for any reason.

 

Btw, reading the comments, I am now inclined to set the autopay to pay the minimum just in case I forget.

Fico Scores: . Walmart TU 748 . Garden 8/19 2014 .

Cap One Journey 500 | Discover IT 500 | GE Home Design 5.6k | GE HHGREGG 5k | Amex Zync NPSL | Amex BCE 6k | Citi Forward 4.2k | Citi Dividend 3k | GE BrandsMart 1k | GE Lowes 8.5k | Discover Walmart 7.5k | Barclays Apple 2.5k | BoA CR 2.7k | CSP 7.2k | Platinum Prestige 5k | IT Chrome 4k | Slate 2.3k |
Message 19 of 32
cashnocredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Do you guys use autopay on your credit card bills? Why or why not?

I pif-autopay each card from a single bank account. I treat them as debit cards. I don't normally prepay before a statement cuts since I believe the statement balance fluctuation carries indirect info that I likely pif and estimate of cash flow. This helps FICO's (and others) "capacity index" and "income estimate," useful but rarely discussed scores that are, in some ways, nearly as important as the classic "Risk Scores."

 

But  I don't always use only autopay. I may pre-pay on many cards the month prior to a credit app. in order to optimize FICO. This is pretty important to do if that month happened to be a particularly high spend level. Don't want to app for credit if your util. is 80% or even 150% in the case of World or Siggy cards which allow that.  OTOH, it's good stuff to show you can handle the spend if you pif and your util is down to 5% or so at the next cycle.


I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.

WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy18k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k
Message 20 of 32
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