Do you pay off your c.c. in full each month?

[Ima saver]

I pay mine off every month. My husband mostly uses it to charge supplies at home depot. Then we get 1% in cash when we accrue $100!!

[project15]

The only card I don't pay off is a 0% card that we received for putting a down payment on my car. The reason I don't pay it off is because it's at 0% for the next year. We COULD pay it off right now, but I'd rather put that money towards something else at the moment.

[lynclarke]

We do automatic payments for as many bills as we can with our Discover or Mastercard. and I charge everything I can. I do not care if it is one dollar at the grocery store, I will charge it. We also have automatic payment of the credit cards. We take the accrued cashback money as Red Lobster certificates. Yayyy! So our dining out costs are pretty minimal. Generally, we only eat out once a month...maybe two.

Originally Posted by jriessel

Yes I always pay in full - I have never carried a CC balance.

I do think however, I tend to overuse them because I have had to take money out of my savings to pay the balance. It is part of the spending money you don't have problem. I am currently trying not to use them at all.

thank you for pointing that out


It is a very frequent thing here in this environment to see paying the cards off each month equated with not overspending.

they are not the same thing.

[LuxLiving]

Right rexdart. I very seldom charge anything that was not a pre-planned or pre-saved for purchase.

Example: We went out to eat once each in Nov and once in December and once in January. That is an unusual thing for us. Nov is my birthday, December is our anniversary and in Jan we used a Christmas gift card that we received.

We just planned for and budgeted back the money to do the Nov & Dec eat outs. Immediately at the table or in the car on the way home I take out the checkbook and deduct the amount from our checking account.

When the bill comes in I pay it and flip back thru the register and record either bill-pay or check number in that blank in the checkbook. Usually it's several pages back in the checkbook before the bill comes in. To make it standout I record a large "CC" at the end of the description line in checkbook so I know that it's money taken out but not yet physically removed from checking.

(I'm explaining my exact process here because it always used to confuse me when people said they subtracted it immediately from their checking.)

2311_____12/03 Dress Shop____________________$23.00
______________Toga for party

________ 12/04 Orgazmica Pizza____________ CC__$19.44
Discov_________ Anniversary Dinner

2312_____12/07 Scrath N' Dent Store_____________$32.00
______________ Tuna Sale 300 cans X.10 2.00 tax

(notice the blank where the check number is usually) and then the check register rolls on.


When the bill actually gets paid it looks like this:
2311
2342 12/04 Orgazmica Pizza____________CC__$19.44
Discov Anniversary Dinner
2312

or
2311
bill-pay 12/04 Orgazmica Pizza____________CC__$19.44
Discov Anniversary Dinner
2312

Yeah, that might be old news to you guys who've done it for years, but really it took me forever to figure out what people were actually doing in their check registers. No, normally I'm a quicker study, but sometimes you just hit a roadblock!

Back on topic - planning to spend and using the credit cards as an aid is an entirely different thing than just charging willy-nilly with no plan or budget in place to hold you in check.

[living_in_oz]

Well, I have 2 cards that carry a balance on(I just merged the two onto one card with less interest but I haven't received the new card/account yet). So, no I don't pay it off every month. But, I don't charge anything on my card either. I use mostly cash now. I only keep money in the checking account to pay bills. The rest of our money is cash, savings, and our retirement fund.

My old cards didn't have a "cash back" option. My new card does, so there's every chance I "may" start using it for every day purchases. However, the whole thing seems a little vague to me. I can get cash back on gas and grocery stores, but not at any "Super" stores...does this mean Wal-Mart? I'm assuming it does. Anyway, I need to read a little more to see how this cash back works. Chances are it might not be worth the trouble.

[greedy4chips]

Every month! It costs too much to carry a balance.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by rexdart

It is a very frequent thing here in this environment to see paying the cards off each month equated with not overspending.

they are not the same thing.

True. By the same token, I constantly see using credit cards equated with being in debt, and that isn't necessarily true either. I use my card constantly - total charges in 2006 were about $32,000. My credit card debt, however, is zero, because I pay the bills in full each month.

If you pay the bill in full each month, you aren't overspending in the sense that you are buying things you can't afford, but you may still be buying things you really don't need.

[Hot dog]

I pay them back every month unless it is at 0% then I will keep it in the bank earning interest until it becomes due

[debt_free]

Like a lot of people, we have one credit card for emergencies. Everything else goes on a debit card. I never thought I'd like plastic, but I gotta admit, it really helps track the household expenses.

Have a fantastic day,
Dennis Mason

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by debt_free

I never thought I'd like plastic, but I gotta admit, it really helps track the household expenses.

That's terrific! Although I have to tell you, I think most people are the exact opposite; that plastic is actually harder to keep track of.

Unlike cash, for example, plastic itself doesn't give you any indication that a transaction has even taken place. And that's why it's so crucial to have an effective tracking system to manage plastic.

But again, to actually find it easier for you is a very good thing indeed.

[DivaJen]

We pay off our cc every month in full. One thing I like about it is that I can import a statement into Quicken, and once I've done this a few times, almost all of the categories are correctly filled in for me as well. I also like the cash back that comes with the Citi card.

[ren]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

That's terrific! Although I have to tell you, I think most people are the exact opposite; that plastic is actually harder to keep track of.

Unlike cash, for example, plastic itself doesn't give you any indication that a transaction has even taken place. And that's why it's so crucial to have an effective tracking system to manage plastic.

But again, to actually find it easier for you is a very good thing indeed.

I've just started using Wesabe, mostly as a lark, and it's great at showing what's going where with plastic. I may keep using it going out from here. Yes, I'm a big geek that loves charts.

edited because I messed up my link

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

Unlike cash, for example, plastic itself doesn't give you any indication that a transaction has even taken place. And that's why it's so crucial to have an effective tracking system to manage plastic.

I disagree. With a credit card, I get a statement every month that lists all of my charges. And at the end of the year, I get an annual summary broken down by category of all of my charges. That certainly doesn't happen with cash. I think it is much easier to track spending and manage a budget when using a credit card.

[frugalmomof1]

The only cards I carry a balance on are those with 0% interest.
Currently I have $1000 debt at a furniture store, 5 years 0% interest, and $2800 on my Discover card, that is 0% until March. I will pay that off before I am charged any interest.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

This poll is certainly turning out as I expected it would. ...so far it is, anyway.

Yep. Me too. I pay it off.

[kealina]

we pay it off every month too... the convenience really does help... also, i don't know if i agree that we spend more using it... it might be the typical response but we're pretty careful with our dollars and cents...
i think it helps that we track our spending so we know whatever we spent will get logged when we get home...

[Rich_Rico]

I pay my CC in full each month.

[LuxLiving]

Thanks ren, wesabe looks very interesting! I'm going to check it out further.

[Gruntina]

I personally did not know how to answer this one. I had a huge debts in the +60k in credit card debt from my last marriage that I have been paying off. I never made new payments and managed to get it down to the last 6K. It was originally set to be paid off a few years earlier this past December but its more lileky to be paid off by March 2007 now.

I do however have a new credit card two years ago that has only my name on to help build up my credit and that one is paid in full each month. I rarely use it except once in a while to buy gas with it for credit history purpose.