In my experience, Navy rewards you for positive account management not necessarily for spend. Yes it great to use their card(s) if it meets your needs but I'm not one to get carried away with I should only use 10% of the limit or 30% , etc. You just limit yourself from utilizing your credit limit if you want/need to. So long as you pay it , that's the mot important part. I recommend trying to pif, pay in full, charges you put on it to help you not accrue debt or interest or use the card for purchases you know you can pay off at end of month. Aside from debt I cannot pay off, this has been my motto going forward and Navy has rewarded me for it. Good feedback given on this thread
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:So I've heard that it's best for the card to report that you're using it (for however much) and paying it back but that you don't want it reporting that you owe a balance or if you do owe one, one that's over 10%. How do I prevent that from happening? I've read that if you pay it too soon, that it will look like you haven't used the card at all and I don't want that. I'm trying to improve my credit score as it currently hovers between 608-614 for all three. I want it to show that I am using the card but that I'm paying it down as well. If any of that makes any sense
Forget all that. If you're just starting out and have only one card, don't worry about utilization percentages or what's reported. As Remedios said, just worry about using it and paying it on time. Nothing else. Once you grow your report and have a couple of more cards, THEN you can start worrying about what balances are reported on each. For now, just use your card like a debit card and don't charge what you can't afford to pay back right away. Let whatever balance is built up over the billing cycle post (so long as it isn't over the limit), and pay it in full before the due date to avoid interest charges. Navy will be perfectly happy with that.
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:So I should leave a balance. Does that mean if I spent $200, to pay, let's say $150 of it, and leave the $50 to report? Won't that mean I'll be paying interest on that $50? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, I'm just trying to understand it all
No, because you have a grace period to pay that remaining $50. So for example, let's say you spend $200 throughout the month, then make a $150 payment before the close of the cycle, and your statement closes on March 31 with a $50 balance, and your due date is April 27. You have until that due date (April 27) to pay that statement balance ($50) in full. If, say, you were to make only the minimum payment (which would probably be $25 in this case) by April 27, you'd have a remaining balance of $25. If you were to rollover that $25 to the next statement (which would close let's say on April 30), THEN you'd incur interest on that $25 only. Going forward, any new charges after April 30 would ALSO incur interest.
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:
@OmarGB9 wrote:
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:So I should leave a balance. Does that mean if I spent $200, to pay, let's say $150 of it, and leave the $50 to report? Won't that mean I'll be paying interest on that $50? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, I'm just trying to understand it all
No, because you have a grace period to pay that remaining $50. So for example, let's say you spend $200 throughout the month, then make a $150 payment before the close of the cycle, and your statement closes on March 31 with a $50 balance, and your due date is April 27. You have until that due date (April 27) to pay that statement balance ($50) in full. If, say, you were to make only the minimum payment (which would probably be $25 in this case) by April 27, you'd have a remaining balance of $25. If you were to rollover that $25 to the next statement (which would close let's say on April 30), THEN you'd incur interest on that $25 only. Going forward, any new charges after April 30 would ALSO incur interest.
Ohhhhhhh, ok. I see. So I'll just make sure my card is paid by the due date and not worry about all of the other stuff. Thank you
Yea so easiest way is to use your card, don't max it out, make payments throughout the month if you wish (but it's not required), and once the cycle closes and you get your "balance due" pay that off in full BEFORE the due date, while still continuing to use your card like normal. Rinse and repeat.
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:Hi everyone. I was recently approved for the NFCU nrewards card. It's my first cc and I'm wanting to make sure I do things right. When should I pay my bill? I want to make sure that it's reporting a $0 balance each month.
There's some great information in this thread! I just want to boil this all down to a simple point:
- use your card
- receive your statement
- pay the bill
Rinse and repeat. That's it. That's reallly all it boils down to: Use....pay....use....pay....etc.
It goes without saying that the amount you pay should never, ever be less than the minimum due. But it's always a good idea to pay *more* than the minimum, even if that's not the entire balance. The amount you see on your statement does not include and will not incur any interest; pay the balance by the due date and you're good to go, no interest added. If you pay less than the balance, you will incur interest--in the NEXT billing cycle--for whatever was left over. (I've heard of sub-prime cards that start charging interest the minute you make a purchase, but I have no experience with that kind of account.)
For what it's worth, I never do the AZEO thing ("all zero except one") and it doesn't negatively affect me at all. I keep most of my cards at $0, but the cards that are in use go ahead and report balances--including those in the thousands--and it's not a big deal. Keep your utilization low, both in terms of each account and in total (when you have more than one card!), and your scores won't suffer--much. I'm *not* saying there's no impact at all, there is, but not enough to bother me. The more your utilization rate increases, the more impact there will be on your scores--but I keep my utilization WAY BELOW the recommended levels, so its impact is negligible. If you do the same, you'll be fine.
If you like seeing $0 balances--and, really, who doesn't?!!--wait until you have multiple cards, then shuffle them around so some report $0 and others report current usage. That's my strategy. BTW, my scores are in the 800s, usually just under 830.
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:
@OmarGB9 wrote:
@LikeNoOneElse84 wrote:So I should leave a balance. Does that mean if I spent $200, to pay, let's say $150 of it, and leave the $50 to report? Won't that mean I'll be paying interest on that $50? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, I'm just trying to understand it all
No, because you have a grace period to pay that remaining $50. So for example, let's say you spend $200 throughout the month, then make a $150 payment before the close of the cycle, and your statement closes on March 31 with a $50 balance, and your due date is April 27. You have until that due date (April 27) to pay that statement balance ($50) in full. If, say, you were to make only the minimum payment (which would probably be $25 in this case) by April 27, you'd have a remaining balance of $25. If you were to rollover that $25 to the next statement (which would close let's say on April 30), THEN you'd incur interest on that $25 only. Going forward, any new charges after April 30 would ALSO incur interest.
Ohhhhhhh, ok. I see. So I'll just make sure my card is paid by the due date and not worry about all of the other stuff. Thank you
If you're comfortable with that. Some people, myself included, prefer to pay it much sooner than the due date. In the days of paper statements that was the only way to do it. Now with online banking you can pay it whenever you know it's posted.
I don't like to leave things to the last minute.
