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What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

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MAstudent07
Contributor

What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

Sat wat dee ficoers, I have a question and would love to hear your suggestions. I pay some monthly bills on my Cap1 card. My issue is that I have to pay an annual fee($39) in January, and have been thinking of closing the card. I would like to substitute the role of my Cap card with another that has no AF. Here are my the remainder of my cards:

 

  • BOA Amex 
  •  Freedom 
  •  Forward 
  •  More 

 Which card should I use for bills? The CAP1 card is my oldest (01/09) followed by BOA (02/2010); I know about the cause and effect of closing the card, but I don't want to shell out an AF anymore.

 

Thanks all!

Amex BCE| BOA CB| Freedom| Citi DC| Discover It|
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?


@MAstudent07 wrote:

Sat wat dee ficoers, I have a question and would love to hear your suggestions. I pay some monthly bills on my Cap1 card. My issue is that I have to pay an annual fee($39) in January, and have been thinking of closing the card. I would like to substitute the role of my Cap card with another that has no AF. Here are my the remainder of my cards:

 

  • BOA Amex 
  •  Freedom 
  •  Forward 
  •  More 

 Which card should I use for bills? The CAP1 card is my oldest (01/09) followed by BOA (02/2010); I know about the cause and effect of closing the card, but I don't want to shell out an AF anymore.

 

Thanks all!


What type of the bill and how much?

What are the CLs

Message 2 of 10
Wolf3
Senior Contributor

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

I'd pick based on rewards and sufficient CL.  Select one you want to keep as well.

 

The possible change in utilization will be main effect on closing the card.

Message 3 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

I use my Crap One to pay for Equifax CMS and HSBC for my Score Watch and FCR.com CMS's, I have it this way because of the payment dates for the CMS's and the due dates on my CC's, I want these cards to report 0 and these CC's work good for me at this time.

 

I always, yes always (at least for the last 6 months) have only 1 CC report a balance to keep me at 1% util every month. (I know life happens and I will not always be able to do this).

 

With that said, if you want to use your CC's to pay your recurring bills, and you want to have them report 0 bal every month, pick the CC or CC's that the due date/s and the payment date/s of the bills gives you time to pay them, so you can have the CC or CC's report 0 (if that's important to you) I hope any of that makes sense.

 

My Crap one and HSBC are still inside of a year so no AF's yet, that's why I use them, once they hit the year mark I'm going to close them (got them last year while rebuilding, low CL's and will not pay AF's).

 

All my new Prime CC's have high CLS no AF's and low APR's (actually all of them have 0 APR between 6 and 15 months) I will probably use my Discover More to pay all three once I cancel Crap One and HSBC in a few months, the due date on the Discover will work just fine with the date the payments on my three CMS's are due.

 

Sorry for rambling, I sometimes do that.

 

Best of Luck!!

Message 4 of 10
MAstudent07
Contributor

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

Thanks for your suggestions friends. I use the card to pay light, cable, mobile phones, charity, and insurance. I pay it off every month. My other cards look as follows...

 

  • BOA Amex- 7k/ 5.00 balance reported monthly
  • More- 1.5k/ 0 balance
  • Forward- 7.5k/ 0 balance
  • Freedom- 2k/ 0 balance
  • Cap1- 1.5k/ 0 balance w/ AF

I don't mind using any of these cards to pay the above bills (except BOA because some of payees don't accept Amex), but I will ONLY be using it for that purpose.  Every month my total usage runs about 500 dollars. thoughts?

Amex BCE| BOA CB| Freedom| Citi DC| Discover It|
Message 5 of 10
way2evil
New Contributor

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

What card do you use the most? I would use that one to get the most points (bills will most likely be only 1 point or 1 percent, nothing special).

Message 6 of 10
MAstudent07
Contributor

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

I use my cards equally....all four are used for my general monthly spending. I suppose want I wanted to know was is closing Cap1 a good idea given my situation?

Amex BCE| BOA CB| Freedom| Citi DC| Discover It|
Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?


@MAstudent07 wrote:

I use my cards equally....all four are used for my general monthly spending. I suppose want I wanted to know was is closing Cap1 a good idea given my situation?


I'm assuming the Cap1 card is one of their rebuilder cards because of the 39 AF? BTW is this a plain vanilla Cap1 or the No Hassle Rewards Cap1? The No Hassle Rewards Cap1 is a pretty decent cash rewards card in terms of ease, not like some of these other prime CC's rewards programs, which some of them you need a collage education to understand how they work LOL!

 

1,500CL for that card is not bad at all, if Cap1 increased my CL to 1,500, I'd keep it and pay the 39 AF and just use it for a small purchase once a month and PIF just before the due date.

 

You now have 19,500 total revolving credit with the Cap1, that would drop to 18,000 TRC if you close Cap1, personally I would keep the Cap1 for util purposes only and switch over to a CC that you can earn points or cash back on to pay your bills. (Thats if the Cap1 you have now is NOT the No Hassle Rewards Card, if you do have this card I'd continue using it to pay the bills, I'm sure the cash back you will earn would easily offset the AF)

 

I will not pay AF's on CC's with lower than 1.5 CL, IMO 39 AF is not that bad for a 1,500CL CC, and IMO it's not great either, but a small price to pay to have that extra 1,500 revolving credit for util, in case you ever need it.

 

Based on reading you post, you know what you are doing and have good credit knowledge, just give it some thought and I'm positive you will make the right decision.

 

Just my 0.01

 

Best of Luck and keep us updated.

Message 8 of 10
MAstudent07
Contributor

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?

Thank you for your insight mustang, I appreciate it. I'm okay with the business relationship I have with Cap1, I have never had any problems. You are right about it being a rebuilder card, it is the classic platinum MC. At the time of acceptance, I had no credit cards, therefore, it allowed me to join the world of credit.

 

 Last week, I called the backdoor number asking to see if my AF could be waived, or upgraded to a rewards card/w an AF, or a card w/o an AF all of requests denied. CSR informed me "to check back and thanked me for a being a valuable customer". I chuckled at her response, because it seems I have heard those exact same words from other members. Smiley Wink

  

 I will call again in November to see if one of the three requests can be granted. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Amex BCE| BOA CB| Freedom| Citi DC| Discover It|
Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What cc should I use for my recurring bills?


@MAstudent07 wrote:

Thank you for your insight mustang, I appreciate it. I'm okay with the business relationship I have with Cap1, I have never had any problems. You are right about it being a rebuilder card, it is the classic platinum MC. At the time of acceptance, I had no credit cards, therefore, it allowed me to join the world of credit.

 

 Last week, I called the backdoor number asking to see if my AF could be waived, or upgraded to a rewards card/w an AF, or a card w/o an AF all of requests denied. CSR informed me "to check back and thanked me for a being a valuable customer". I chuckled at her response, because it seems I have heard those exact same words from other members. Smiley Wink

  

 I will call again in November to see if one of the three requests can be granted. Keeping my fingers crossed!


Yeah, I think we have all heard that response from Cap1 LOL!!!

 

And you are welcome for the input, I'm not sure it's the best input, there are other members here with much more experience than myself, hopefully they will chime in and give you the perfect advice for you situation.

 

Have a Great day!! and BTW, Happy 4th of July!!!!

Message 10 of 10
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