Cheap Service that Bills Regularly?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for ideas on a service that bills something cheap- think $5 per three months or something- just so I can keep a card or two active without having to think about it much. MyFico service is fine, but $15/month is too much for me to throw to a $0 balance card.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Netfix. $10 per month

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking for ideas on a service that bills something cheap- think $5 per three months or something- just so I can keep a card or two active without having to think about it much. MyFico service is fine, but $15/month is too much for me to throw to a $0 balance card.

Any ideas?

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I use most of my cards to pay monthly recurring expenses that have to be paid in some fashion anyway. Using my cards for this shows activity and is very simple and easy.

I think my smallest monthly charge is about $16 for XM Radio.

[Anonymous]

Netflix, duh. <facepalm> We already have that comming out of checking! EDIT: This means I can't believe I didn't already consider this...

So Marine, this is a good practice in general, assuming we PIF every month? (Given the expected balance reporting, etc)

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Netflix, duh. <facepalm> We already have that comming out of checking!

So Marine, this is a good practice in general, assuming we PIF every month? (Given the expected balance reporting, etc)

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What I do is pay in full as soon as the charge shows online and before the statement even posts. That way the accounts alway show a zero balance.

[Anonymous]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

What I do is pay in full as soon as the charge shows online and before the statement even posts. That way the accounts alway show a zero balance.

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Makes even more sense.

So the plan is to set up a small recurring monthly fee on "unused" cards in a way to give me enough time to PIF before the balance reports. Genius.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Makes even more sense.

So the plan is to set up a small recurring monthly fee on "unused" cards in a way to give me enough time to PIF before the balance reports. Genius.

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It works very well for me. After a few months it will become automatic and second nature remembering which cards charge what and when the charges go through.

[jdogi]

MarineVietVet, do you know if constant $0 balance reporting to the CBs would cause am account to be considered "active"?  I've read that FICO 8 reduces the weight of accounts that are not recently active.  It's just not really clear to me if I need to let a balance report every once in a while to make that happen.

Thanks,

jdogi

[MarineVietVet]

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@jdogi wrote:

MarineVietVet, do you know if constant $0 balance reporting to the CBs would cause am account to be considered "active"?  I've read that FICO 8 reduces the weight of accounts that are not recently active.  It's just not really clear to me if I need to let a balance report every once in a while to make that happen.

Thanks,

jdogi

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In my mind there are 2 types of "activity".

1. Activity that satisfies the credit card company. You can accomplish this simply by charging something every 2-3 months. In this scenario the CCC's don't care whether you always have a zero balance or not. An occasional charge is quite enough for them.

2. Activity that makes scoring happy. This means not going too long with a zero balance. If you go too long of a time (How long is too long?) then for scoring purposes the account might be considered dormant even though it is actually still open and active.

Plus as backwards as it seems if all your revolving accounts show a zero balance your score will suffer just a bit.

By linking my cards to recurring expenses I avoid these possible problems.

[Revelate]

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@jdogi wrote:

MarineVietVet, do you know if constant $0 balance reporting to the CBs would cause am account to be considered "active"?  I've read that FICO 8 reduces the weight of accounts that are not recently active.  It's just not really clear to me if I need to let a balance report every once in a while to make that happen.

Thanks,

jdogi

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Payments and potentially high balance over the statement period are reported. Even exact dates as well as a few other metrics for that matter though our own resolution of what's reported to the bureaus is admittedly fuzzy.  If you're using the card for a recurring bill, the bureaus, vis a vis FICO, can determine that regardless of whether you let a balance report or not.

They'll also see though you're not using the card very heavily .