tekmoe said:
i do the same thing. i pay my credit cards off as soon as the bill arrives. i have read though, that this is frowned upon by the credit bureaus. it has something to do with them thinking you can't maintain a monthly bill so you pay it all off very quickly. not sure if i buy into that or not.
I have a card I pay everything off on, and I have a card, where I'll sometimes let a couple hundred carry over, but the rate is only 11 percent. The reason being is that showing you can carry a balance on cards actually helps your credit rating compared to paying off every card every month.
Furthermore, there are so many strategies to turn the credit card companies on their heads, and take advantage of their own trickery:
One I have:
I pay just about every bill, groceries, gasoline, etc. with a particular card. This adds up to a substantial sum each month. However, I actually submit payment for each of those items, when I buy them, via my online banking system. That allows me to carry a balance up to what I spend each month (if I ever wanted to), but I'm tricking the credit card into thinking I'm paying off the entire previous statement balance, when in reality I'm just paying new charges (they just happen to be more than the previous statement balance of course). What this does is I never have interest rates on that card, even if I always have a balance at statement time of a couple hundred (and I could allow that balance to increase to whatever my monthly spending is without getting interest).
Example:
Previous balance $300 (fun stuff I bought)
Spending this month: $1500
Several payments during the month before next statement: $1500
New balance: $300
See, the card thinks I paid off the previous balance, so I don't get interest.
🙂
I love turning the game on them, from time to time.
When it comes to computers, I try to pay 50-75 percent on the card, right away. Then I'll do a hundred or two hundred a month until its paid, but with no interest.
