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Odd little trick of mine

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MattH
Senior Contributor

Odd little trick of mine

One of the best things about online banking for me is that I can sort the list of my creditors by date of most recent payment and see whom I have not paid recently.  One trick I use is, in a month when I don't owe somebody any money because I have either a zero balance or a credit balance with them, I make an online payment of just five dollars.  This insures that I pay almost most of them SOMETHING every month, and therefore if my weekly scan of the list shows that it's been more than 30 days since I last paid somebody I know I had better check how much I owe them right away to avoid risking a late fee.

 

TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
If you dunno what tanstaafl means you must Google it
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SCF
Valued Contributor

Re: Odd little trick of mine

I do a similar thing Matt, except that I haven't been making small payments in zero balance months.  Do any of your creditors balk at this at all?  How often do you make the "tracking" payments?
Message 2 of 4
smallfry
Senior Contributor

Re: Odd little trick of mine

Here's a little trick of mine. I look at all my accounts twice each day. I pay each account early. 
Message 3 of 4
MattH
Senior Contributor

Re: Odd little trick of mine


@SCF wrote:
I do a similar thing Matt, except that I haven't been making small payments in zero balance months.  Do any of your creditors balk at this at all?  How often do you make the "tracking" payments?

 

I maybe do this around six times a year, and I always do it from the "push" side (my Checking account) rather than the "pull" side (the creditor's website).  None of them have given me any static.  The main downside of doing it from the "push" side is that it can take a few days for my account to be credited, so I do it well in advance of the due date.  For me the whole point of tracking my payments online is to avoid ever being close enough to the due date that a few days will matter; since my wife and I usually have much more in the bank than we owe, I can pay my bills whenever I choose to pay them.  Very occasionally for cash-flow reasons I may choose to pay the full balance on a credit card closer to the due date than usual; in such cases I'll make two payments in the month, one of the minimum well before the due date and the rest closer to the due date.  That way, if the larger payment doesn't get credited before the due date I'll only pay a little interest rather than a late fee.  Aside from this, the only interest my wife and I pay is our mortgage.

 

TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
If you dunno what tanstaafl means you must Google it
Message 4 of 4
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