Question About Utilization

[Anonymous]

Just to make sure...

Once you receive that statement balance showing between 0 and $135, you have until the 6th to pay that off. Pay it in full and you'll never pay interest. This is the only amount that you need to pay in full to avoid interest.

You'll have a 'current balance' from using the card after that statement balance reports. You only need to pay what was on the statement balance to avoid interest.

[MomoMango]

If I'm starting to understand correctly: A statement balance is the balance that was left over from last month. By looking at my previous statement:

It shows:

Statement Balance:  $17.32

Minimum Payment Due: $17.32

Payment Due Date: July 06, 2019

Paying the Statement Balance avoids fees and interest

Paying the Minimum avoids fees but not interest

Once I pay the statement balance. Would the remaining current balance of 1% or 2% which is $15 or $30 be okay? 

[Anonymous]

Whatever amount that's left over after the "statement" balance is paid, is also interest free until the following statement cut date. But must be paid along with any new charges made during that new statement period. 

Once your promo rate is over, and if it's doable. Just pay the "total balance" every month and cut out the micromanaging overthinking of it. 

If you are unable to pay the "total balance" every statement period, then just keep paying the "statement balance" by the due date every month and you'll be fine. It should tell you on the statment which balances should be paid and when to avoid what fees.

[Anonymous]

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@MomoMango wrote:

If I'm starting to understand correctly: A statement balance is the balance that was left over from last month. By looking at my previous statement:

It shows:

Statement Balance:  $17.32

Minimum Payment Due: $17.32

Payment Due Date: July 06, 2019

Paying the Statement Balance avoids fees and interest

Paying the Minimum avoids fees but not interest

Once I pay the statement balance. Would the remaining current balance of 1% or 2% which is $15 or $30 be okay? 

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Yes, you have it all correct now.

Just forget the minimum payment...always pay that statement balance in full. Right now they match because the amount is so low. You're at 1.15% actual utilization ( (17.32/1500) * 100 ), but the FICO algorithm only looks at whole numbers/integers, so that becomes 2%.

You could charge $1000 on that card, pay it down to between 0 and $135 before the 11th, and then once you get the statement in email or whatever, just pay that $0-135 amount before the due date and you'll never pay interest.

[MomoMango]

Alright I pretty much got it down.

Thank you guys so much for helping me, this was my first question and I was a little shy to ask it as soon as I joined. But now I'll have more courage to ask for more help.  

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums!

[Remedios]

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@MomoMango wrote:

Alright I pretty much got it down.

Thank you guys so much for helping me, this was my first question and I was a little shy to ask it as soon as I joined. But now I'll have more courage to ask for more help.  

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@MomoMango  Dont be shy. Ask away, we all did and still do 

[Fated4Credit]

I'm glad you brought up this topic OP as I'm having a similar issue with PIFing the statement as I hope you don't mind me switching topics real quick, but my issue is in regards to paying interest.

For example: my April Cap1 statement:
Statement cut at $366.48
Previous balance of 615.37 (transactions for the month 419)
Payments: 640 but paid $8.15 in interest

I thought that by me paying obviously more than the 615 statement balance I would have avoided interest for the month.

I always preferred to pay down my balance to the desired amount rather than actually paying the statement, even though I pay 5x the amount. For July's statement my previous balance is going to be $90, but I've made $666 current charges, wouldn't it be better to pay my balance down to say $200, than rather just paying the statement balance of $90 & having a larger balance report than last month to avoid interest? Hopefully I've been clear in my post.