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I personally believe there's a difference between your standard (measurable) AA and sort of unmeasurable AA. Many people say that they've gone a long time... years even only making minimum payments but have "never experienced any AA." While this may be the case in terms of measurable AA (no CLDs or whatever) there's no way to know what's going on internally with your lenders algorithm concerning your account. Sure it may seem as if everything is fine if you see no CLD or anything, but is there minor damage being done behind the scenes? No way to know for sure. If the lender has software that keeps records of these things and that data can be used in future decisions, perhaps it impacts something else down the road... maybe an app for a future product with that lender. There's no way of knowing, so it's always a good idea to do little things like pay a tiny bit above the minimum just in case IMO. To each their own though for sure.
No idea what these people are talking about.
There's a category of credit cards that are specifically known as balance transfer cards, because that's the main reason people with those cards get them to begin with. The idea behind getting a balance transfer card is when you have a lot of credit card debt now that you are struggling with so you transfer it to a 0 interest account for temporary relief, which may ultimately become permanent relief if it helps you pay off the debt faster. So someone who is getting one of these cards is gonna be expecting a decent limit, probably an even bigger starting limit than on their other cards because of what they have to deal with.
Pay whatever your comfortable with (obviously at least the minimum payment, whether it's the minimum payment or twice that. When you open a card with an introductory grace period, it can be very helpful when making a big purchase you aren't ready to pay all at once, like furniture for a new apartment/house, or wedding expenses, or your last semester of college and your parents have run out of money available for college expense, etc.
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@frugal47374 wrote:Let me add another datapoint.
I never pay more than the minimum on any 0% offer. I will happily max out a card. When SDFCU sends me a check that I can write to myself for 0%, I write it for my credit limit. I currently have 0% deals with AMEX, Citi and SDFCU. I just paid off a Chase one.
I have never experienced any adverse action because of this. (Of course, my FICO score goes up and down a lot.)
I wouldn't do this if I had any doubt that I could pay off the card when the 0% deal ended.
Does SDFCU not charge you a fee for using checks? If not great way to use them would be to do something like pre-pay your taxes on a reward card and then use the SDFCU check to pay them off. Then ou can pay that off instead of you taxes.
@Anonymous wrote:2.25 percent of 6k is only $150. I don't really see what you are gaining with your strategy. And you would have to pay income tax on the $150 of interest earnings so you would wind up with even up with less. There are ton of credit cards that you can get cash sign up bonuses for of more cash and you don't have to pay taxes on the amount.
* My CC strategy does not involve chasing sign-up bonuses, but rather developing a portfolio of useful cashback cards for ongoing spend.
* This 0% APR deal is a side perk, not a primary reason for this card.
* $150 minus taxes > $0. Why leave that on the table?
Whatever works for you. Me, I would just get a few cards with a SUB. No taxes on those rewards and much higher potential plus you don’t have to put yourself in debt or wreck your credit with high utilization.
@Anonymous wrote:
@frugal47374 wrote: When SDFCU sends me a check that I can write to myself for 0%, I write it for my credit limit.
Does SDFCU not charge you a fee for using checks? If not great way to use them would be to do something like pre-pay your taxes on a reward card and then use the SDFCU check to pay them off. Then you can pay that off instead of you taxes.
About once a year, SDFCU sends me some checks that I can write to anyone and have 0% for 6 months with no fee. From what I've read in other threads, this is not uncommon for SDFCU customers.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:2.25 percent of 6k is only $150. I don't really see what you are gaining with your strategy. And you would have to pay income tax on the $150 of interest earnings so you would wind up with even up with less. There are ton of credit cards that you can get cash sign up bonuses for of more cash and you don't have to pay taxes on the amount.
* My CC strategy does not involve chasing sign-up bonuses, but rather developing a portfolio of useful cashback cards for ongoing spend.
* This 0% APR deal is a side perk, not a primary reason for this card.
* $150 minus taxes > $0. Why leave that on the table?
Well why leave thousands if dollars on the table? Your strategy seems like a lot of work while making it look like you cant pay your Bill's while giving you next to nothing in return. If you dont care about paying taxes bank account bonuses would earn you much more than your strategy. Everyone I have received is more than 150 dollars.
@Anonymous wrote:
Pay whatever your comfortable with (obviously at least the minimum payment, whether it's the minimum payment or twice that. When you open a card with an introductory grace period, it can be very helpful when making a big purchase you aren't ready to pay all at once, like furniture for a new apartment/house, or wedding expenses, or your last semester of college and your parents have run out of money available for college expense, etc.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that one should pay off an entire balance on a 0% offer all at once or quickly. It IS expected that you're going to take your time to pay it off. The discussion though is regarding the minimum payment and why it's a good practice to pay a few dollars above that minimum payment. I think that's totally different than what you're referring to. If someone has a minimum payment of $90, pretend it's $95. That $5 extra won't break the bank, but could help that person avoid AA both today and down the road.
@Anonymous wrote:
Considering how tricky these algorithms are I don’t see how paying an extra dollar or two above the minimum could hurt.
It can't. The only argument that some attempt to make is that it "may not help." That may be the case (we don't know) but for the minor investment of a few bucks a month does it really hurt [financially] verses the potential benefit if there is one?