paying small, monthly amounts with credit cards

[mjb59463]

Hey everyone,

I'm debating trying this strategy, many of you might do the same already, and I wanted to get some feedback on how it would work, and if it would have a positive effect.

I currently have 7 cards, two of which I will use for my daily spending and carry with me (Wells Fargo Rewards and CSP)

The other 5, which are the Chase Freedom, Amex Delta, Barclay Apple, Discover More and US Bank Flexperks Rewards, I would use as follows:

Freedom- Gym Membership/iTunes purchases

AmexDelta - Netflix/Chiropractor

Barclay Apple- Hulu/Pandora

Discover- Cell Phone

Flexperks- Amazon purchases (whenever they may occur, usually 1-2 times per month)

This isn't a strategy to maximize rewards (it will be later in the future), what I want to do with this is manage my spending and learn to be responsible with what I have. I did make the mistake of applying for cards that I did not need, but they are good cards, and I want to grow with them.

Is this a good strategy? If any of you have done this in the past, I'd be interested to hear your experience with it.

Thank you, and have a pleasant weekend.

[longtimelurker]

I'm not sure what sort of feedback you are expecting.  Basically this is "Use all my cards a little bit", and that is fine.  Listing the categories doesn't tell us much, some may be more interested in the expected spend vs CL on each card.

[MT936]

I have 5 credit cards and an amex gold charge card. The general consensus from what I have read posted on this forum is that it's best to use 1 card and keep that card in 1-9% utilization and have a 0 balance on the rest of your cards. The charge card is nice because it doesn't count towards your credit utilization %. I have a couple cash back cards but I only use them on certain occasions. I would not split payments into specific cards like you are doing but hey if you are responsbile doing that and are paying on time it won't hurt you.

[mjb59463]

Sure, I can provide the projected amount spent per month VS the credit limit.

Freedom- 50-75 spending/1000 limit (Current Balance: 84)

Amex- 150 spending /2200 limit (current Balance : 0)

Barclay- 150 in payment every month /3100 limit (Current Balance: 750)

Discover- 200 spending /1000 limit (Current Balance: 0)

Flexperks- 100 projected spending, which many not occur/5000 limit (Current Balance: 600)

CSP: 500/5000 limit (current balance)

Wells Fargo: 80/2500 limit (current balance)

Discover, Amex, and Freedom will be PIF every month, Flexperks I may not buy from Amazon for a while and get the balance to 0, Barclay I will make the 150 payment towards for the next 5 months till my MBP is paid off, then Hulu/Pandora will be quite cheap and PIF as well.

I will keep the Wells Fargo credit line under $450 at all times, and the CSP under $600 at all times.

All of the above is managable for me.

[rolangunslinger]

I do the same thing with my cards, Netflix on one, gas purchases on another, gym membership on another. I do this to show some usage on all my cards every month. As long as you pay them in full before they report each month, it wont affect your credit score.

[core]

I don't like putting recurring transactions on non-rewards cards just to keep them open unless the recurring charge is _very_ small.  I don't know what a gym membership costs because I've never been to one, but let's say $50.  In a year that's $600 spend.  I could have gotten 1.5% cash back on my Paypal debit card, or there are other 1.5% options.  That works out to $9 a year lost.   Add in Netflix and whatever else, and soon it adds up to be a sizable annual "fee" just to keep your cards open.

What I do is purchase a $0.50 or $1.00 Amazon gift card code with each card each month which is emailed to me instantly.  Consolidate all those and it goes right into my account to be used on my next real purchase.  I push the CC payment out at the same time so it's not really much more work than I'd have to do anyway.

Another option... Back when I had cable I discovered my cable company let you pay tiny amounts with a credit card.  I'm talking mere cents.  $0.01 if you had the guts to do it.  I'd pay $1.00 with each SD card and then kill the remaining balance with a rewards card.