How do I achieve reported 0 balance with auto pay

[AspiringDink1991]

I want to set my credit card up on auto pay.

but the only option is for it pay the full statement balance  on auto pay

ie Nov statement says $250 but that won't get auto drafted until Dec, so Dec bill will be on there by that time.

it will never report a 0 balance this way, idk how to fix it

[Anonymous]

That's odd, as there is usually an option to select auto pay to be for the current balance, not just the [previous] statement balance.  Which lender is this through?

If statement balance on auto pay is the only option, the only way I'd see being able to accomplish it would be to do a second (non-auto pay) payment.  So if your previous statement balance was $300 and your purchases were $500 (current balance $800) you'd have to go ahead and do a second $500 payment in addition to the $300 auto pay payment.  That sort of defeats the purpose of auto pay however if you're forcing yourself to do a manual payment, but at least you'd achieve a $0 reported balance that way.  I suppose the benefit would still be that if you forgot to do the additional payment you'd still get the auto pay payment in and not be late / have to pay any interest.

[chiefone4u]

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@AspiringDink1991 wrote:

I want to set my credit card up on auto pay.

but the only option is for it pay the full statement balance  on auto pay

ie Nov statement says $250 but that won't get auto drafted until Dec, so Dec bill will be on there by that time.

it will never report a 0 balance this way, idk how to fix it

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Usually to have a zero balance report you need to either: Stop using the account, or pay off the balance manually before the statement cuts.

Most banks don't have an option to pay current balance on a set day automatically (though I think a couple Synchrony cards did offer that).

If you shared which bank or banks you are attempting this with, someone may be familiar with a way to accomplish your task.

In the meantime, auto pay is useful to insure you don't miss a payment... but you'll likely need to authorize a manual payment for the balance before the statement cuts (don't forget some banks take 3+ day's to process the payment, so make sure you factor that in to insure your statement cuts $0).

[Phana24]

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@AspiringDink1991 wrote:

I want to set my credit card up on auto pay.

but the only option is for it pay the full statement balance  on auto pay

ie Nov statement says $250 but that won't get auto drafted until Dec, so Dec bill will be on there by that time.

it will never report a 0 balance this way, idk how to fix it

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Some of my cards have the option to pay full balance.  For the others, I use notifications on my calendar to set the date to make the necessary payments.  Remember also to be careful and not have pending charges.  I try and set half of my card for early in the month, and the other half for later.  This gives me some flexibility to make sure I can keep balances low.  FYI, some cards will let you make advance payments.  For example my Paypal via Synchrony allows me to schedule multiple payments on consecutive days.  If I happened to have bought a 3K business item, but am not sure when it will hit(some companies refuse to hit your card before your item ships) as long as I have a balance over 600, I can schedule five consecutive payments of 600, so if I think I might get the charge close to the statement date, I will "prepay" it.  It used to work for my Discover, but they caught on a while ago.

[AspiringDink1991]

It's through Discover. I undid the previous statement balance auto pay and set it up to pay half of what I know the bills will be going to that card, on a bi weekly basis so that hopefully it'll achieve that 0 balance every month.

was trying to use auto pay but 🤷‍♂️ They don't like that I guess

[chiefone4u]

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@AspiringDink1991 wrote:

It's through Discover. I undid the previous statement balance auto pay and set it up to pay half of what I know the bills will be going to that card, on a bi weekly basis so that hopefully it'll achieve that 0 balance every month.

was trying to use auto pay but 🤷‍♂️ They don't like that I guess

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The method I use for Discover is "Minimum + $1,000" since I never spend $1,000 in a single month it only pays up to the balance the day the payment is sent.

[SouthJamaica]

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@AspiringDink1991 wrote:

I want to set my credit card up on auto pay.

but the only option is for it pay the full statement balance  on auto pay

ie Nov statement says $250 but that won't get auto drafted until Dec, so Dec bill will be on there by that time.

it will never report a 0 balance this way, idk how to fix it

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I don't think you can. If you want to micromanage, you need to manage.