Is there an advantage to paying it off every week vs auto paying it once a month on the due date? Not questioning your method, just curious if there is a benefit. I use my cc for everything I can and pay it off at the end of the month. I enter each transaction in my checkbook as if it’s a regular debit. Yes I’m old school and track every purchase down to the penny. Wish it was a habit I could break but I’m too anal.
Credit Cards
- Thread starter AgronAlum
- Start date
i would.... just sign him up for one... get the login info username and PW... and just monitor it with him.. and talk about it. i wish i had a parent do that with me.
I pay mine off the week they are charged. I got tired of there being a month sitting there when I paid it off already. So now whatever gets charged Saturday through Friday gets paid off on Saturday morning.
Chase Sapphire Preferred is excellent if you travel. It’s a $95 fee after the first year but you get a$50 hotel credit every year and if you need/use rental cars, it is one of the very few with PRIMARY rental car insurance. I couple this card with a freedom and a Citi double cash.
My parents added me as an authorized user when I was 16. I never got to see or use the card but it started a credit score/report history early for me.
Hobby. That is just me. I download everything daily to see what needs to be paid. We pay as soon as it shows up on our account. I know that is a bit overboard, but we are always caught up and when a major expense shows up we know we have to cut back to stay on budget. I have my bills planned and entered in quicken 60 days forward. So when we had to buy a new range last month that put a crimp on spending until we get caught up again and we live out of our freezer for a while and watch out for unneeded spending until we are back on track. I never thought about it before, but our freezer is a savings account with a fee attached. (Electricity). We do cut back on what we save to pay major bills when they show up. Just dont pay interest on credit cards.
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Do you put money into retirement and savings first? Do you have like a cap on savings (or investments) when you stop throwing into it? Just asking because a range would come from our savings and we would run it up again until we hit a certain amount. With kids starting to go on their own, we have been fortunate that we have blasted past that cap and don’t have an issue now.
I use to do a lot more churning but now I just stick with 2 cards. Amex gold for groceries and dining. Capital One Venture X for every thing else. I may swap the AmEx for Chase Preferred next year. AmEx makes you play too many games to get your money back.
The sad part is my wife wants me to keep the AmEx gold because she likes the rose colored card.....
The sad part is my wife wants me to keep the AmEx gold because she likes the rose colored card.....
If you shop on Amazon get their card, 5% on all purchases there. You should get 2% back on everything and there are plenty of cards that have 3% on gas and/or groceries as a simple starting point. I have 6 or 7 cards, 1 for Amazon, 1 for gas, 1 for groceries, 1 for everything else and a couple old ones that I just keep open. It makes it easy to see when I splurged to much on Amazon or general purchases any given month.
Agree on the parents thing. Dad still prefers to pay cash. I got a card when at ISU with something like $500 limit. Made payments on time, now it's got a ridiculous limit on it. Was able to get enough credit history to buy a car and eventually a house with it.
One thing to keep in mind in regards to getting hacked - if it's on your credit card, it's the banks money. If it's your debit card, it's your money. I've had much better response when I've had a credit card number stolen vs a debit card number stolen.
I have the Sapphire reserve and I highly recommend it. Has a hefty yearly fee of $550 but you get $300 back in travel credit which includes things like Uber/Lyft. You also get a free TSA pre-check membership, free roadside assistance, travel protection including rental car protection, and access to many different airport lounges. My favorite card I’ve ever had.
We also have the Delta Amex Reserve for the lounge access and free travel voucher but wouldn’t rec it as a primary since several places we have gone don’t accept it. Not a ton but just enough to be annoying.
Through the years we have had challenges. But we have done our best to increase savings at the same rate of wage increases and kids moving out and mortgage paid off. Empty nesters for 9 years now. It does make it easier.
When my daughter was in college, she studied for a semester in Spain. We made her an authorized user on one of our Visa cards in case her debit card didn’t work or there was an emergency. She always asked first and only used it occasionally. It turns out that she tagged on to our credit history because of this. A year or so later, she went to our bank to get her own Visa and the banker was amazed that she had such a high credit score before getting her first card. She’s 25 now and bought a house a year ago and had no problem getting a mortgage.
My parents did something similar. Got a card when I was 16 that was strictly for gas just to kick start my credit history. I don't think I've used my debit card since then other than at an ATM.
I would actually say you lose out on interest earned when you pay off immediately. I pay mine off monthly and schedule the payment about 2 days before it’s due. My online savings account has about a 4.75% interest rate. Paying early gives up real money IMO.
You could just add him as an authorized user on one or more of your cards. But if you want to get him his own card I'd go with Citi double cash.
Similar right now for me with a new card i recently signed up with. 0% interest for the first year, so i'm just making the minimum payments and accruing interest. I'll pay it all off right before the interest kicks in.
Years ago my wife got us Disney Rewards VISAs and had them put Tinkerbell on mine as a joke. I've had that thing for years and drive-thru folks recognize me for it now.
Me and my now wife both had discover student cards while in college. Goal was to start building a credit score history while we were in college.
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