Be honest - How many of you pay your complete credit card balance off each month?

[Anonymous]

We do. Never ever carried a balance. Don't revolve either, and not even quite sure what you mean by that.

[Anonymous]

We pay off in full with one exception. We put $35K on a mileage plus card for home rennovations and then paid it off in two chunks (was 0% interest). But we got a ton of miles from that .

[Anonymous]

lots of people have jobs where they have low monthly salaries then a big bonus/partner payment at the end of the year. For them, they tend to have high cc balances until the lump sum comes in. I get $12Kmonth until November when I get about $130K, so yeah, I get up to about $15K or so in cc debt until then. They tell me it helps my credit score, but not sure and do not care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a single parent who has been underemployed for years. I finally found a job a few months ago in my field where I make around $50,000/yr. Sounds like a salary most DCUMs would complain about but it's all relative. I was making half that when I was underemployed. Those years of making $28K left me in around $15K of credit card debt. My job offered no health benefits so I had to pay for my own policy for myself and my DD. That was a HUGE chunk of change. Plus I had a high deductible so I ended up paying for every doctor bill anyway. I ended up charging some of the doctor/dentist bills or they would've sent the bills to collections. My credit cards were all zero balance cards but it was hard to pay much more than the minimum each month. My ex sometimes paid child support so I couldn't really count on that each month. Now I am finally paying off the balances and it feels great. Not everyone w/ credit card debt is charging up a storm on eating out, traveling, clothing, jewelry, electronics, etc. I agree with the poster who said that sometimes very inexpensive "things" are important for keeping your morale up. My DD get ice cream out once a week as a treat. I defend spending that $6 each week. Most folks who post on this board have very high HHIs so I think the responses will represent that. I cannot imagine making enough money in one month to pay off my $15K credit card bill but I am sure plenty of posters could do that w/ no problem.

I feel you. Me too! Congratulations on getting a job in your field!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i owe about $9K in CC debt and we are on vacation right now. life is short. SUCK IT.

xoxo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i owe about $9K in CC debt and we are on vacation right now. life is short. SUCK IT.

And yet you are wasting your vacation on DCUM. You are a sad, sad person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did until last year.

Now I just accept that a few thousand dollars in credit card debt it just going to follow me forever. And I am actually just happier now. We got to go on vacation for the first time in 3 years. I was able to get the tires on the car replaced all at once. I was able to buy myself a much needed very good quality winter coat. Yep, they were absolutely worth the monthly payment plus interest.

And for the record, I personally think that the vast majority of people on this thread lied and are likely carrying at least $10K in credit card debt.....

LOL believe that if you want. I made my first million by age 38.

[Anonymous]

Pay it off every month. The only time we haven't is when we've bought something major, and then we stopped using the card until we paid it off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i owe about $9K in CC debt and we are on vacation right now. life is short. SUCK IT.

xoxo

The only person who is going to suck it is YOU. Enjoying sucking down all the interest.

[Anonymous]

For the past couple years, we did.

Then, DH didn't budget appropriately for his 1099 taxes and the past few years of an incompetent accountant have come back to bite us in the butt, so his work CC hovers around $9k. Hopefully we get money back this year and pay that puppy off.

We have been building a house (house payments + rent) and have more debt than income the past several months...plus have had to buy more stuff for building the house than we thought (long story)...so we are hovering around $13k.

However, our HHI is about $250k, so it won't take us long to pay it off. I look forward to ONE mortgage payment and knocking these cards off in 4-5 months. The good thing is, it's finally been a wake-up call to DH who has been free to spend $$ the past few years without question. He is finally scrimping too, eating in, not buying 'stuff', etc.

The only crappy part is our occasional babysitter really needs the random income we give her (she is a SAHM and we pay well) and I have to tell her we are flat broke right now. And I'm a Fed and just got a step increase, so no raises anytime soon.

The BEST thing is that our weekly grocery bill for a family of 4 is $91. Cutting out meat and eating leftovers is key! (And we work at home so that includes lunches for me and DH.) I am pretty proud of that.

[Anonymous]

As a single mom who makes less than 100K, there's been times I've had to float debt. Otherwise, other necessary bills wouldn't have been paid (think rent, food, utilities, etc.)

When I can pay it off, I do. I always pay as much as I can when I can't.

[Anonymous]

We always, always pay our balances off every month. Never considered doing otherwise. Our salaries aren't huge -- we both work in nonprofit.

[Anonymous]

We have no debt, other than a mortgage payment. Our cars are old, but paid off. I just paid off the last of my student loans 2 years ago. We have a healthy income, but live in a modest home, drive modest vehicles, do not purchase anything that we can't afford to pay cash for (with exception to occassionally taking advantage of 0% interest financing, but always pay it off before interest can be incurred). I admit that I am sometimes very jealous of my friends, who have similar careers and likely similar income, living in huge homes and driving luxury vehicles. But then, I suspect they carry loads of debt. We have already built a substantial retirement portfolio and college saving fund for our son.

To be fair, though: I've read somewhere that approximately 70% of Americans carry revolving debt. I suspect that most who have responded to this thread have high HHI's and can afford to pay cash for items that most people would consider unobtainable luxuries, without credit. I'm not sure we're all sage financial planners, so much as we don't worry about forking out a few thousand dollars for unexpected repairs or buying that $7 cup of coffee twice a day.

[Anonymous]

I pay off my card in full every month. I'm 35 years old, use the card for absolutely every purchase, and have never once left a balance at the end of the month. DH has his own card and carries a small balance. We have separate money.

[Anonymous]

Always.