Pay monthly bills with credit cards?

[disneysteve]

Considering you can have multiple bills all with different due dates charged to one cc with one due date, is there a strategy to paying the bills around the cc due date? If the cc due date is the 10th of the month and your bill due dates span from the 1st - 15th of the month, is it possible to be charged interest on the bills that don't go through by the 10th due date?

For those of you who do pay bills via cc, is there any software you use to organize the process

I think I understand your question but if not, let me know. If you are paying your bills by CC, it doesn't matter at all what the due date is on the CC bill. Let's say my Comcast bill is due on the 10th and my Visa bill is due on the 25th. On the 10th, Comcast will automatically charge my cable bill to my Visa and that's it. Bill is paid. Comcast couldn't care less when or if I pay my Visa bill because they already have their money. I then pay my Visa bill by the 25th due date and all is well.

I have no idea why you would need special software to handle this. There is really nothing to organize. The bills automatically get charged to my Visa card and then I pay my Visa bill. It is quite simple. I make one payment each month instead of 5 or 6 or 8 separate payments.

[starnz]

I see now, you set the bills up to be paid automatically. I was thinking more along the lines of manually paying them by cc.

While I like the idea of automating savings and some bills(insurance), I'm leery of automating most of my monthly bills. In my experience, I regularly have to check my bills first for correctness before I pay them. You'd be surprised how often utility companies over-charge or mis-bill assuming no one will check. I probably have at least one bill corrected every 3 months. And for me I would rather send the right amount the first time then have to depend on the company to credit me due to their mistake. Just my personal preference I guess.

[disneysteve]

starnz - I have some bills that are automatically charged to my CC. I have others that I pay manually. The ones that charge automatically are generally ones where the bill is the same every month like our newspaper subscription or our cable bill. Other bills like my auto insurance I pay manually. No matter what, I always check every bill and have never had a problem getting the occasional error reversed.

[sweeps]

To your comment Sweeps, if you have a budget and reconcile to the budget at least weekly if not daily, then that should not be a problem. If it is then said individual needs to go back to first and start over again. That is really a different issue from my perspective wouldn't you agree?

Everyone starts with the best intentions. Over time though it's easy to get busy or lazy or distracted or whatever. Just a cautionary message, that's all.

[suesaiz47]

paying monthly bills with credit cards

If paying monthly bills with credit cards is it possible to pay your mortgage on one as well? then pay off the credit card each month before the the additional interest?

[Petunia 100]

If paying monthly bills with credit cards is it possible to pay your mortgage on one as well? then pay off the credit card each month before the the additional interest?

I have never found a way to do this without paying a fee. The fee is greater than the credit card rewards. If you find a way, please let us know!

[Eagle]

Since I'm one of the people who does this, I'll chime in here.

Yes, we pay as many monthly bills as possible with our credit card. That includes our land line and cell phones, cable, alarm, auto insurance, professional society dues, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, all medical copays and bills, Netflix, gas, groceries, dining out, travel and pretty much all household spending. I've said before, the only thing I routinely spend money on that doesn't go on the credit card is casino gambling.

+1 to this comment.

Except we don't do the casino gambling. Lol

[Leo]

My main credit card basically gives me 2% cashback of any purchases without annual fee. I pay any monthly bills like phone, cable, electricity, water, etc with my credit card online if its possible and no fee. I actually use the credit card for everything. I pay off the balance in full every month as well before the due date so there is no interest and I get some free cash.

[corn18]

I am averaging $220 / month cash back on my Citi Double Cash card. Wish I could charge my mortgage, but I do charge everything else. I think I would rather they just make everything cost 3% less, but it is nice getting 2% back over the whole year vs. missing out on that.

[herdjohnson]

I am averaging $220 / month cash back on my Citi Double Cash card. Wish I could charge my mortgage, but I do charge everything else. I think I would rather they just make everything cost 3% less, but it is nice getting 2% back over the whole year vs. missing out on that.

You're charging 132,000 a year on your credit card? Are these business expenses or something?

[corn18]

You're charging 132,000 a year on your credit card? Are these business expenses or something?

Yes. No business expenses. That's about 85% of our planned annual expenses. I would be embarrassed by that number but at least it's decreased a LOT since 2013 when I cam here. Still have some work to do.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

After looking at different posts on this site and articles here and elsewhere, I notice there are a lot of people who regularly charge upwards of $3,000 a month on their cards and pay the balance at the end of the cycle. Just wondering from the people who do this, is it just miscellaneous spending that gets racked up on the cards or are you paying monthly household bills? If you are paying bills, does that have to be set up through the biller or can it be done directly through the credit card similar to online banking bill pay?

Using credit cards for day to day purchases...

maybe some people can do, but I find it really hard to resist temptation to overspend.

Rewards cards are *great* for fixed expenses and building credit, but I'd rather go with debit cards for day to day stuff.

[Fishindude77]

Still pay a lot of the big bills with a check in the mail old school, and also always keep some cash on hand for misc. purchases. Our credit card bill is still typically +/- $3,000 each month which we pay off. Good credit cards will get you cash back or some type of rewards points which you will use.

[snafu]

For those of us who always pay total CC charges by their due date, using CC for rewards is efficient and convenient. I'm rather new to the 'cash back' CC and especially like the one that gives 5% for groceries and gas/service station charges. It only pays out in December and I'm shocked at how much has been accumulated by mid year. It's only 1% for utilities, the old card used to be 2% but they reduced to 1% as well. Since the utilities, food and auto operation costs are paid forever, I may as well accept the rebate when allowed.

Cable/internet is a bill I watch closely as they are always trying to add stuff I don't want following free promotions, I call to correct the day the incorrect statement arrives on snail mail. I keep telling myself to check the on-line bill but they post those too [annoyingly] intermittent for my tracking system.

Other than flight charges, I get more frugal if our two CC bills total more than $ 900. I recently learned some condo management groups take CCs for fees. Plan to check with our Board to see if they are considering that option.

[Jsteinkruger]

Man I wish I could charge my student loans and my mortgage to my CC's I would easily be rolling in the money!...wishful thinking...