Can you pay directly from the interest account? That’s where my payment is pulled from each month.
For this reason, when you call (if you do), ask for the outstanding balance — not the statement amount — and pay that.
I have autopay for the statement balance, so late/partial payment hasn’t been an issue (knocks head). But I once made the mistake of taking a cash advance and it took me several tries to get it cleared.
No. I promise you my system makes sense for me.
I was specifically asking about any hit to my credit score, which is flawless. I pay off the entirety of my account every month which is virtually every penny my wife and I spent during the month.
Noted, and I’ll drop the subject.
A decade or so ago, I was still paying most bills, including my credit cards, with checks. My wife hadn’t yet retired, so I timed the bill payments to her paychecks. Sometimes that meant that the checks didn’t get received until late. Mostly I called the credit card companies and got late payments removed, occasionally not.
We also purchased a Lexis hybrid, by far the most expensive car we’ve ever had. The sales manager went into the back and ran our credit score. When he emerged he looked at me and said, “Do you want two?”
Unless things have changed drastically since then the OP should not worry in the least.
Once again, this month go to your credit company’s web site and make an ACH payment. Both my credit cards will register the payment on the day that I click the pay button. I handle my payments exactly like you do, have forgotten a few times and have made the ACH payment on the due date with zero issues. Just remember to cancel your payment from the bank if you have scheduled it.
ETA: As others have mentioned, your credit doesn’t get dinged until you are 30 days late. But you will be hit with an interest charge, which makes it worth doing the ACH payment.
In the US at least, some banks limit the number of payments from a savings account.
It happened to me that we missed one payment on a CC we always off in full every month. We got a nasty letter from the bank saying that our interest rate was being raised, yadda yadda. So I called to cancel the CC since we didn’t want to deal with that bank any more. We used to have savings and chequing accounts with them and, over the years they managed to piss us off in so many ways that we gradually withdrew from them. When I tried to cancel the card, the lady kept wanting to know why and I kept telling her that they were very unpleasant to us. She kept asking for details and I finally hung up. The card appears to be still active, although we have not used it. It expires in Oct. and, if they send a replacement, I will tear it up, unactivated. Meantime I have gotten a CC from another bank and arranged to have charges paid off automatically, which had already been true for a different card.
This is what I do. About the only thing coming out of my account automatically is property taxes and mortgage payment, and the mortgage is done as of the end of this month (woo-hoo!). All my bills either come off the credit card, or arrive on paper in the mailbox. (3 credit cards, hydro, internet&cable, sewer&water… Costco keeps changing what card they need.) They are all due the end of the month.
I put all my purchases on the credit card. I agee - I don’t want to give out my bank account. If there’s a dispute, you don’t pay the card bill if you are sure you are right. With a deduction from your account, you’re out the money until they agree you’re right.
I have a pension and my wife can expect one in a few years. With over a million in retirement savings and a house paid of worth almost the same (no capital gains on personal dwelling in Canada) I don’t give a flying hoot at a donut what my credit score is. (OK Boomer? That’s me) I don’t recall that score ever being an obsession in Canada anyway, AFAIK each bank does their own credit-worthiness assessments.
Yeah, virtually everything I buy in a month is on one card, every grocery, every gallon of gas and every dinner out. I’ve been doing this for years and I have amassed a huge amount of frequent flyer miles, this winter my wife and I are flying business to South America for a vacation and it’s almost all on miles.
Points worth reiterating. 30 days is key. I’m a bit scatter-brained and often pay my credit card bills late, but within 30 days and always in full. My credit score is excellent.
If you use the card all of the time, I would call them. Ask if there are issues, late fees, etc. If you’ve held the card for some time, and don’t have a history of being late, they may be willing to forgive. Do not count on them forgetting.
do they charge you for paying by phone? some do
I’ve never been charged for it, on my cards. It’s an ACH/eCheck-type transaction, so it shouldn’t cost the bank more than processing a paper check.
As I said, the important point is that they can charge you interest on purchases from the day of purchase if you do not pay in full by the date indicated on that month’s bill. Pay on time in full every month, no interest.
So when you are a bit late, do you incur interest?
A technique I sometimes use is to set up an automatic recurring payment for an amount much less than my typical monthly spend but more than the likely minimum payment.
E.g. assume I usually spend ~$2K / mo on this card and always plan to pay in full. The typical monthly statement will say the minimum payment is e.g. $50. So I set up a recurring fully automatic payment for $75 or even $100. That guarantees no missed payments and no credit score hit if I forget about the bill.
Then, as the payment due date approaches, I tweak the amount of only this one impending payment to be the entire balance, transfer money between accounts, etc., as needed. All future scheduled payments remain the smaller default amount.
The result is one payment for the full amount, AND a safe automatic backstop if I forget.
If I do forget and the payment due date slips by unnoticed, the small but more than minimum auto-payment will happen. Then once I remember (Oops!) I manually pay the balance, and only get stuck with a couple days’-worth of interest. Which is pennies even at the usurious rates they charge. And more importantly, no crazy-big late fees or interest rate hikes.
Best of both worlds IMO.
I use automatic payments for bills that are the same each month - cell phone , cable, insurance. Those are also all relatively small. I don’t do autopayments for bills that vary and might be really large - I might need to move money from another account to pay it, I might not want to pay the entire bill at once.