No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
I was just curious as to how most of you handle your credit lines and payments.
Personally, I will let my paychecks build in my checking account and tend to pay some each week until my balances are PIF right before the statements cut. Leaving a small balance on 1 alternating card each month to report for maximum FICO scoring. (yes, even though I'm not apping for anything, I'm just psycho like that lol)
Let's hear from the Family!
Do you:
1. Keep all your cards paid off as you charge on them.
2. Make larger payments either weekly or bi-weekly, making sure they're PIF by statement cut.
3. Let the money build in your checking account and then pay cards in full only once a month.
4. Let the money build in your checking account and then pay a better than minimum payment monthly, but not PIF.
5. Let the money build in your checking account and make minimum payment each month leaving a balance to report or revolve.
Just thought it may be a helpful thread for those wondering how to best manage their payments, by hearing from all the experts.
Once a week, I check all of my accounts even if I haven't used them during that week (it is to make sure that someone hasn't used it). I pay each one I have a balance on that week and I pay in in full and I do that all four weeks during the month. That way, I don't forget anything. Everything gets paid in full and I leave 2 - 5 % utilization.
I have 6 cards that I don't use at all... they just report $0 balance.
I have 2 cards that I carry balances at 0% interest... I pay a discretionary amount before the due date.
I have 2 cards that I use occasionally that I always pay just before the statement date, so they always report $0 and I don't have any payment due.
I have 1 card that I use all the time. I pay this one in full before the due date, but because I use it continuously, some balance will report by the time the statement cuts.
This system has been working great for me. I don't pay anything more than once a month.
Back when I first started repairing my credit and was in heavy debt, I made multiple monthly payments to reduce the interest I was paying. Then when everything was paid off except one balance that is now at 0% interest, I PIF all cards with one or two payments before statement date.
At the end of last year I decided to start paying as most people do that don't read here - after the statement cut but by the due date. I never let a large balance report on mulitple cards because I don't have the CLs to support that kind of utilization so my monthly payment will include the balance from prior month and some current charges. I've let multiple balances report for three months and the ding to my score has been very little that I can see.
I pay all cards I use completely before the statement closes, except for one to make the report look its best. I never know when a good sign up bonus will come along and I may not have time to wait until the cards stop reporting thousands of dollars in balances.
I pay mine on the due date - in full. At one time, I paid them each week.
I'm somewhere in between.
I budget to make more than the minimum payment every month on every card.
At the end of month x, whatever dollars I have left get added to the next month's CC payment budget...thus raising the actual payment made the following month...
We've got six or eight cards with zero balance that we don't use.
We've got four cards that I pay weekly and we use constantly.
Thank God for Excel....