No minimum payment due?

[Anonymous]

Do credit cards do this anymore?  I seem to recall that you used to have zero due the month after making a large payment (like you had paid enough to get ahead for a few months).  Does anyone have a card that does this, or is this no longer practiced by CCCs? 

I was just thinking it could be used as a strategy to "never be late" and kind of curious how this was/is calculated.

[Anonymous]

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rebuilder wrote:

Do credit cards do this anymore?  I seem to recall that you used to have zero due the month after making a large payment (like you had paid enough to get ahead for a few months).  Does anyone have a card that does this, or is this no longer practiced by CCCs? 

I was just thinking it could be used as a strategy to "never be late" and kind of curious how this was/is calculated.

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Citi Sears MC does this occasionally, or did a couple of years ago anyway.  DF was carrying a balance on hers for quite a while, and every so often a statement would appear with $0 due.  They call it a payment holiday.

I'm not sure how it could be used as a strategy to never be late, though.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that none of mine do this anymore, they do lower the minimum payment a little, but never zero. This is probably due to the congressional slap on the hand to CCC for past practice of making it easy to not pay their payment and therefore keeping their credit card customers in hock.  I have however received several letters in the last 6 months from my car lender a major bank and one of my credit cards that I can pay a small fee and be able to put into place a skip payment option. I did not do this. I would rather be broke than to add another month of payment onto a car loan.

[Anonymous]

Cheddar said "I'm not sure how it could be used as a strategy to never be late, though."

You could make a large purchase, then PIF and you wouldn't have to pay anything for the next few months.  That way people wouldn't have to stress about automatic payments going in for the next few months (cause it wouldn't matter what day they were processed).  I think this could give someone breathing room (especially if they are going on vacation or something).

Sorry if this isn't making sense.

Message Edited by rebuilder on 03-31-2008 07:59 AM

[Anonymous]

My USAA MC does this still. I PIF a large balance but then used it for something and for the second month running it has had No min due at this time. It's the only one I have that still does this.

[Anonymous]

Unless I'm totally misunderstanding the question, and the answers, all my cc's that I pif say that when I go online and check the account out. I notice it mostly when I make an interim payment, which happens monthly.

[marty56]

National City Visa does that to me.  I paid a large amount and they say I have no minimum payment due next month.  They know I am going to pay the BT off before the due date so I think this is a ploy to collect some interest from me.

Makes it hard to do a budget since I dont know what the next minimum payment will be and when it will be due.

[Anonymous]

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marty56 wrote:

Makes it hard to do a budget since I dont know what the next minimum payment will be and when it will be due.

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You always have the option of budgeting the payment and paying it anyway, even though the CCC says there is no payment due.

[Anonymous]

Yeah- my BoA has offered a "payment holiday" for the past several months.  I'm not sure what triggers it- I'm not making "large payments" by my standards- only slightly more than what I charge each month.  I pay probably 7-10x the minimum payment, though.  BoA is the lowest-interest of the cards I use, so I'm working on getting the others to PIF first.

Honestly, I'd be scared to take advantage of it- I'd be afraid they'd use it as a flimsy excuse to jack up the interest rate, lower the credit limit, or both.  Yeah, even though they offered it.... 

-MsMS

[Creditaddict]

Home Depot almost never wants a payment from me!! I always pay though and when they do ask for a payment it's $10