topic Re: Using credit cards exclusively in Credit Cards

Using credit cards exclusively

Gmoney144 — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:38:47 GMT

Since the beginning of November, I’ve been using my credit cards for every transaction to take advantage of cash back or points. NFCU Cashback for most transactions, USAA REWARDS for gas and AMEX Gold for restaurants. The problem I have is that some transactions don’t post immediately, especially with NFCU. USAA and Amex I use about once a week so it’s not a problem. At the end of the everyday, I transfer money from my checking to my NFCU credit card account to pay for any transactions. However, some transactions do not post immediately and I’m not sure if it’s the credit union or the merchant waiting to post for a couple of days. Has anyone had this problem?

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

SummerOf17 — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:53:22 GMT

I would not do it everyday unless I really have toooo much time on my hands. I am pretty sure NFCU has an online utility to pay the balance owned in FULL on the day the monthly payment is due. You could probably also set up an alert for the day your statement cuts to login and pay that amount in full. I do that on all of my accounts. What I also do is if I know that I have rather large purchase coming up is payoff the balance on the card couple days before the purchase. Otherwise it becomes an OCD .

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:00:21 GMT

I use my credit cards for every single transaction, I only carry my debit card with me in case of an emergency.
Anyways, you can signup for autopay so you don’t have to worry about it, if you have money in your checkings it shouldn’t be a problem and that’s what I do, I’m just mindful of how much I’m spending on my CCs.

Another thing that you could do is: Check your available credit line. Let’s say you have 5k as a credit line and it says that you have 3k available. That means that you’ve spent 2k and that will be your balance most likely.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:07:49 GMT

@Gmoney144 I'll explain what I think is the answer to your question with a scenario that applies generally to checking accounts and credit cards.

Point of sale purchase at Walmart for $40.00. The merchant (walmart) authorizes your card and that pings to your bank institution and it goes to a pending state. With credit cards you'll notice your credit limit amount changes but the balance owed is still the same until it posts. Your bank will hold that item in a pending state for 2-5 business days. That provides the merchant with time to provide an electronic receipt validating the allowed purchase and then the bank electronically releases funds. So the answer to your question is both parties are involved with the delay.

Now, if the 2-5 business days elapse without a receipt your bank releases the pending transaction and your available balance increases by $40.00 or your credit limit increases by $40.00. This is where people can get into overdrafts because they do not reconcile their account and go off of memory. Hope the long answer provides clarity. I agree with the above poster. Don't pay off daily If you can stand it. Very counterproductive and ocd.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:10:10 GMT

@Gmoney144 wrote:
Since the beginning of November, I’ve been using my credit cards for every transaction to take advantage of cash back or points. NFCU Cashback for most transactions, USAA REWARDS for gas and AMEX Gold for restaurants. The problem I have is that some transactions don’t post immediately, especially with NFCU. USAA and Amex I use about once a week so it’s not a problem. At the end of the everyday, I transfer money from my checking to my NFCU credit card account to pay for any transactions. However, some transactions do not post immediately and I’m not sure if it’s the credit union or the merchant waiting to post for a couple of days. Has anyone had this problem?

No need to micromanage like this, especially for someone who has decent limits like you do where utilization wouldn't be a problem. Make your charges, let them report to statements, set your autopay to pay the full statement balance on or slightly before due date, keep your money in high yield APY accounts through grace period. Credit is suppose to work for you, don't be a slave to it.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:11:01 GMT

You don’t have to pay every transaction like that. It’s just going to confuse you. Just wait until your statement cuts and pay the full statement balance immediately. You’re way over thinking this

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Gmoney144 — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:24:02 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I’ll will try to wait until the balance post monthly.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

HeavenOhio — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:31:48 GMT

A transaction will generally hit pending immediately. One exception I've seen is Amazon. They can take an hour or two, possibly because they're giving you time to cancel your order.

If a transaction doesn't make it to pending status, you might want to check with the merchant for an explanation. That happened to me recently at a sandwich shop. It turned out that their system was offline.

One to five days is normal for a transaction to post. Some merchants won't claim their money until an order has shipped. On rare occasions, I've seen purchases post the same day that I've made the charge, but that's a major exception. J.C. Penney does it whenever I charge to AMEX. And my Spectrum cable bill does it frequently — but not always — on my Mastercard.

Pay as you feel comfortable, but don't get hung up on paying immediately. The only time you need an itchy payment finger is if a transaction is so large that further charges make you uncomfortable.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

UpperNwGuy — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 22:19:56 GMT

Pay your bill once a month after the statement cuts. And be patient. All the charges ultimately post.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

RonM21 — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:15:27 GMT

In the few times that I questioned the length of time it was taking a pending charge to post, I have found that it was the merchant end causing the problem. One good example for me is a particular Walmart I go to. I never tried to pinpoint if it is only with that one store or not, but the charges from them on my Walmart card are often delayed longer than normal before posting.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 03:35:38 GMT

Driving yourself insane aside, a number of banks really don’t like you to pay multiple times a month. It can be a huge red flag honestly. Just wait for your statement or set up autopay.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

staticvoidmain — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 07:44:26 GMT

Depends on what you mean by "post". It will not "post", but will be in pending. It should get to pending immediately, otherwise, they would not be able to charge you, unless you give them your card info for manual input which is very risky (anyone, please correct me if I am wrong). For example, gasoline charges you one dollar on swipe; or in card enrollments like Google Pay. Restaurants also charge you for the bill, minus the tip. It will be in pending, in most cases, a day or two before it posts and change the amount to the bill + tip.

This is why I think your method is hard to keep track. Personally, I'd pay it as soon as the statement cuts. I do this, and only pay early if my spend gets my utilization above a certain percentage. I like to have utilization in my credit.

I also use credit for everything except rent, or when it doesn't make sense. I almost never carry cash with me.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Queen_Etherea — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 17:13:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Driving yourself insane aside, a number of banks really don’t like you to pay multiple times a month. It can be a huge red flag honestly. Just wait for your statement or set up autopay.

Why is a huge red flag if you pay multiple times a month? I do this all the time because it helps me keep better track of how much money I actually have in my bank account. I don't PIF EVERY time a balance posts, but I will PIF multiple times throughout the month.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

xaximus — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 17:48:35 GMT

Personally, I usually pay my cards once a week, if not once every 2 weeks. This way, I don't spend too much time hunting and looking at each charge and also don't drive myself nuts. I usually (sometimes) remember what I've purchased a couple days ago so with that being fresh in the head, I know what to expect. I'd suggest making a payment every 2 weeks. Just check in to see if the charges are correct and posted. No need to drive yourself nuts on pending charges.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:57:03 GMT

It makes zero sense to make a payment after every transaction. In fact, more than one payment a month IMO is too much. This isn't meant to be stressful. If you're worried about money and can't trust yourself to do it once a month, make a payment every 2 weeks.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 19:57:40 GMT

If i have the funds available and a charge posts, ill pay it. Doesnt bother me, im paying back what i used. Havent had a problem yet with any lender who has got their payment but in most parts i agree you dont need to do multiple payments .

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 20:22:34 GMT

@Queen_Etherea wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Driving yourself insane aside, a number of banks really don’t like you to pay multiple times a month. It can be a huge red flag honestly. Just wait for your statement or set up autopay.
Why is a huge red flag if you pay multiple times a month?

"huge red flag" is probably a slight overstatement! That said, if for any reason you don't want "eyes on your account" (because you are bonus chasing, MSing or doing anything else that might give an issuer pause) the best thing to do is to appear as normal as possible, and, IMO, this means paying about once a month. Most people, with most bills, pay some time after the monthly bill arrives, and don't make transactional payments in between.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 20:58:12 GMT

@Queen_Etherea wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Driving yourself insane aside, a number of banks really don’t like you to pay multiple times a month. It can be a huge red flag honestly. Just wait for your statement or set up autopay.
Why is a huge red flag if you pay multiple times a month? I do this all the time because it helps me keep better track of how much money I actually have in my bank account. I don't PIF EVERY time a balance posts, but I will PIF multiple times throughout the month.

It may not be as much of a red flag to the credit card companies as it would be if I was I was reviewing someone’s account I guess. A pattern of paying off things as soon as they get charged on a credit account with a grace period could mean that the person struggles with money management and can’t actually budget their purchases, doesn’t have steady income so they pay off their purchases right away, or is stretched to the limit with a high DTI ratio and doesn’t want to fall behind.

Even if none of the above apply, when 99% of your card holders pay off in larger chunks or make a single payment a month, or definitely looks odd for someone to be making a payment every time they make a charge.

I swear I actually read about Amex being one of those issuers that doesn’t like multiple payments a month, in fact reading about that earlier this year was part of my factor in deciding to cancel my Amex card that had a slap in the face SL that would have required me to make multiple payments a month to get the SUB and keep reported utilization low.

Whatever works though I guess. I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the opposite end of an account review having to explain my odd payment patterns when, for example, trying to recon a CLI denial though.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

Queen_Etherea — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:08:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Queen_Etherea wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Driving yourself insane aside, a number of banks really don’t like you to pay multiple times a month. It can be a huge red flag honestly. Just wait for your statement or set up autopay.
Why is a huge red flag if you pay multiple times a month? I do this all the time because it helps me keep better track of how much money I actually have in my bank account. I don't PIF EVERY time a balance posts, but I will PIF multiple times throughout the month.
It may not be as much of a red flag to the credit card companies as it would be if I was I was reviewing someone’s account I guess. A pattern of paying off things as soon as they get charged on a credit account with a grace period could mean that the person struggles with money management and can’t actually budget their purchases, doesn’t have steady income so they pay off their purchases right away, or is stretched to the limit with a high DTI ratio and doesn’t want to fall behind.

Even if none of the above apply, when 99% of your card holders pay off in larger chunks or make a single payment a month, or definitely looks odd for someone to be making a payment every time they make a charge.

I swear I actually read about Amex being one of those issuers that doesn’t like multiple payments a month, in fact reading about that earlier this year was part of my factor in deciding to cancel my Amex card that had a slap in the face SL that would have required me to make multiple payments a month to get the SUB and keep reported utilization low.

Whatever works though I guess. I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the opposite end of an account review having to explain my odd payment patterns when, for example, trying to recon a CLI denial though.

Ok I guess I can see your point. I'm going to try and not make multiple payments on my AMEX anymore. They only gave me a SL of $500, but I was assured that my account wasn't in their version of the credit steps program. I asked for a CLI on the 61st day and was denied. So I'm just going to make one large monthly payment each month on that card. I use it for gas and groceries, so the $500 limit doesn't give me much wiggle room. I spend about $200-$300 in groceries/month and about $60/month on gas (thank you new Civic!). I used to spend over $100/month on gas with my old car.

Re: Using credit cards exclusively

HeavenOhio — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:37:05 GMT

AMEX is just fine with multiple payments. Heck, they let you pay five times in a day. And when they introduced Pay It, they stated that one of the reasons for the feature was the popularity of paying multiple times per month.