Using credit cards exclusively

[Anonymous]

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@Queen_Etherea wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Queen_Etherea wrote:

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@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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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In your case, you’re going through enough spend to justify more than one PIF a month. I just wouldn’t do it for each individual charge. 

When they give such low limits, I think the expectation changes in regards to payments because people don’t want to cut a 50+% statement. When I got my first card from Cap after my BK they gave me a $500 limit and I literally had to pay that thing off 3-5 times a month because whenever it got to $300 I paid it. 

Who knows with these companies what they actually look at though. Honestly they aren’t big fans of us MF’ers anyway because we don’t get them finance charges. 

[Gmoney144]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Queen_Etherea wrote:

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@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. 

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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.

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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. 

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I never said I paid after every transaction, just at the end of the day.  I also read somewhere that Amex didn’t like multiple payments per month.  With my Amex Gold, I pay after the transaction post however, I use it sparingly.  USAA I use 4 times a month for gas and I pay when it post although it takes 2-4 days to post. With NFCU, I use it frequently and try to pay at the end of the day.  I’ve noticed that while some transitions post immediately(pending status ) some don’t show for a couple of days, throwing off my budget just a little😀.  No biggie.   It’s just something I noticed.   Some of my fellow credit “compadres”  on this forum have to realize most of us a new to credit and finance literacy.  Just trying different ways to stay disciplined.   

[UncleB]

Good points here so far... I'll just add that back in my own sub-prime days I had a small credit line, and would sometimes have to make multiple payments to be able to keep using the card (I didn't care about FICO back then).

An issue I ran into several times were payment holds, where the payment would post but I wouldn't have access to that amount for new charges for a period of a week or so (the longest I ever had was 12 days).  They stated this was for 'my protection' but clearly it was for theirs... they wanted to make sure the multiple payments would clear.  I never had this issue when I was making a single payment, though.

I'll also add that I never had a hold where I used my bank's bill pay to send the payment; all holds I had were when I allowed the credit card issuer to 'pull' the payment from my bank account.  Again, I didn't have the knowledge then that I have now or I would have simply pushed the payments to avoid the issue altogether.

[Anonymous]

But those subprime days are over and you no longer have small credit lines, come join me in the Autopilot Club, it will make your life easier I promise.

Oh and there will be punch and pie.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But those subprime days are over and you no longer have small credit lines, come join me in the Autopilot Club, it will make your life easier I promise.

Oh and there will be punch and pie.

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Oh yes... I'm (thankfully) past that now.  I prefer to simply make a single payment when the bill comes. 

Punch and pie?  I'm there! 

[CreditInspired]

OP
Just start using Pay It. You can do 5 transactions a day. Caveat—you still have to make your min pymt by due date if there’s one.

[Anonymous]

I pay most of my credit cards when the statement cuts for the most part.

The exception are the credit cards I charge my bills too because I don’t like bills showing up on my statement.

[Anonymous]

It can be very hard for to wait, let charges post, and then pay them. I usually pay at least once a week. I do not like to have credit card debt for some reason and have been using my CC's like they are debit cards for over a year now. When I had some debt piled on them in August this year from having to meet several minimum spends at one time it drove me nuts until I could pay it all off.

Some on mentioned in a tread earlier today that they had PTSD from their BK. I think I have PTSD from my 2009 financial woes that resulted in CO's and me being blacklisted at both Amex and NFCU (and possibly JFCU too).

When I do have stuff report in is usually less than 1%. I recently decided to give myself AZEO for Christmas and only have $10 on my Cap1 card.

So I get why people make multiple pmts as quickly as possible