topic Re: how to manage Credit Cards in Credit Cards

how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:22:56 GMT

All,

is there an APP or a website where youd input the info from your cards to better control and not miss due dates and all that?

Thanks,

Dan

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

FinStar — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:27:17 GMT

There's a variety of sites that can help such as Mint. Others will likely chime in on what works for them.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

kdm31091 — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:29:06 GMT

I've tried Mint - didn't like it - too much headache linking all of the accounts and getting constant, annoying alerts and notifications. I have few enough accounts that I'm not going to forget to log in to one and pay the bill or anything.

If you have many accounts, the apps can be useful, don't get me wrong. It's just not for me. If you are having trouble keeping track of accounts and due dates, I'd also think about trimming down the number of cards you have. If you are overwhelmed, an app will not solve that.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:38:03 GMT

All my tracking is done in Excel. It works for me and I can set it up my way. I'm not at the mercy of an app and how it's designed to work.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Gmood1 — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:49:29 GMT

Prism and Mint are my two favorites. I use them religiously. It keeps me from having to log in to each account separately. While putting all of my accounts right at my finger tips. That's credit cards,401ks, car loan, mortgage and all the other normal monthly bills. Auto pay is a man's best friend! Just a nice backup if you do forget something.

https://www.prismmoney.com/

http://www.mint.com/

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:22:07 GMT

can you please email me the template?

(Mod Cut-The posting of personal information isnt allowed in any forum of my fico. Please dont do this in the future)

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 23:56:28 GMT

Was using Mint before. Agree with kdm alerts can be a bit annoying. But there are settings for those so I turned them off. App started acting funky after an update so uninstalled. Wasnt using anything until a couple days ago, just logged into my individual card apps once a week.
Downloaded Personal Capital Finance and love it! Keeps up with itemized income, spending, and cash flow. Has my auto, checking, credit cards and stock accounts all on one screen. Not sure Mint had an option to include stocks.
Dont absolutely need the app to keep up with everything but I like the layout and its convenient.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:09:25 GMT

I recently started trying YNAB to track my bills and budget, but for a good reminder (on Android) I use an app for my phone called Bills Reminder. Its simple and to the point. You enter your cards, due dates, amount due and you can even set up reocurring reminders. This allows me to get notifications on my phone for when a bill is due. Saves me from missing a payment.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

red259 — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:12:25 GMT

I have a number of accounts, but since I tend to be only using 4-5 cards in a given cycle its not really hard for me to remember what I need to pay. Also, I tend to have multiple cards with the same lenders, so I link all those accounts. Therefore when I log in to chase I see all chase accounts at once. Same with american express and citi. I am considering trying mint as an extra level of protection.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:13:15 GMT

Should add that I dont use these apps for keeping up with payments. More for convenience of viewing all the info at once. Not many cards so not many bills to manage and all payments due on the same date so easy to remember. But that can be a useful feature if needed.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

red259 — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:17:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Should add that I dont use these apps for keeping up with payments. More for convenience of viewing all the info at once. Not many cards so not many bills to manage and all payments due on the same date so easy to remember. But that can be a useful feature if needed.

For those with multiple cards that are having difficulty remembering when each card is due it could be a good idea to change due dates to only two times a month (or one if you don't want to stagger payments).That way it is easy to remember when to check your accounts compared to someone who has several different due dates.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:23:11 GMT

Oops, sorry about that

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:32:53 GMT

Create your own excel. I have one file of several spreadsheets tracking everything important. The whole file is less than 200k. All pros are doing it this way.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

happypill — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:48:09 GMT

I use mint and I also have a spreadsheet with each card and pertinent information like statement date, last CLI, etc. I'd also recommend setting an auto-pay for the minimum amount on every card & bill that you have, so even if you forget, at least the minimum would get paid on time. Of course, PIF is best, and definitely try to pay more than the minimum, but auto-pay is there just in case.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 01:10:42 GMT

I Dont have skills to do that on excel

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 02:06:17 GMT

Then you would want to learn those useful skills. Otherwise use pen and paper calendar, old fashion way, and don't open any new card.
The least you can do is to sync all your cards to the same due date. Much easier than having to worry about dues over the span of each month.

Re: how to manage Credit Cards

Gmood1 — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 02:18:03 GMT

The only negative to the old fashion way, is no real time data updates. Fraudulent charges may not be detected as quickly depending on how one sets up their alerts. Verses having something that updates every hour. One of my coworkers went a month before he realized $2,700 was missing out of one of his bank accounts. It took another month to get it back. If he had a app like mint. He would have known the day it happened. Mint would have detected unusual spending and notified him.