What's the most credit card debt that you've ever had at one point in your life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pay off credit cards twice a month. I pay what I have spent to date, not what is billed to me. That way I always know exactly where I am financially. I am also about a billing cycle ahead, in case I need that buffer.

Sounds a little obsessive to me.

Maybe. But it works for me, and I pay bills only twice a month.

Once you get in debt, and then work to get out of it, you end up acquiring some kind of financial hygiene that works for you. Sometimes people drift into debt because they really do not have a good picture of their own financial situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pay off credit cards twice a month. I pay what I have spent to date, not what is billed to me. That way I always know exactly where I am financially. I am also about a billing cycle ahead, in case I need that buffer.

Does doing this affect your credit rating? Or is it really not any better than simply fully paying your cards off (once) every month?

Not PP, but yes, it does affect your credit rating for the better. Credit utilization is a component of your credit score. Credit agencies report utilization at the end of the cycle. So if you max your cards and don't pay it off until it's due--your score will be lower than if you make pre-payments like the PP does.

I am the pp that pays cc twice a month. Wow, I did not know that it had a credit rating benefit.

I think paying 'spending to date' twice a month is the nearest I can get to actually paying with cash only. People have told me that I should keep my money for as long as I can with me so that I can earn interest. I am not capable of jumping through those kind of hoops for such little amount of money(in interest). I think a better utilization of time and effort would be to find cards that give a higher %age of cash back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another who pays off every month. A couple of times carried over $5,000 or so to the next month just because of cash flow issues and paid it all the next month.

If I had a huge amount of CC debt I'd consider filing bankruptcy. A friend owed $40,000, filed for bankruptcy. It hung over her for 7 years but wasn't so bad. End of 7 years she was in good shape. Why beat yourself up?

Well, you borrowed the money and agreed to pay it back. To declare bankruptcy just because it would be hard to pay it off is kinda lame. Use those same 7 years to buckle down and pay it off.