Monday, April 04, 2005

"Honey, I shrunk our future."

An early March survey from the folks at the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index reported that 45 percent of Americans who carry balances are making minimum or no payments on their credit cards. (This, from a poll of 800 adults.)

Although, to be fair, I am among that 45 percent. Sort of.

The rewards/dividend card I use for everyday shopping gets paid off every two weeks. The only card balance I currently carry is at zero percent thru October, and every cent of that money is resting comfortably in my ING Direct account, earning 3 percent annual interest. So, if surveyed, I guess I'd have to answer that yes, I make only minimum payments on that amount.

But something tells me that most of the 45 percent named in the survey above aren't doing it for the same reason I am.

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— Posted by Michael @ 11:11 PM








3 Comments:
 

Don't care...PAY THAT DEBT OFF!!!

If anything, it will be a great feeling.

-Goodluck!
-Nev

Blogger Neville
, at 10:09 PM, April 05, 2005  
 

Hello.. cool blog you have. I have a question.. why do you pay-off your credit card bi-weekly? I prefer to do it monthly, preferably close to the due date. :) Do you spend close to your credit limit, or like to keep a low as possible debt-credit ratio to get a good credit score.. or is it something else? Thanks.

Anonymous Anonymous
, at 10:20 PM, April 05, 2005  
 

As for why I pay biweekly, well, because I've set up Quicken to remind me to pay it every two weeks. This is only on my "everyday use" card, mind you, and the only reason I do this is for convenience and the reward dividends for purchases. I don't even sniff the credit limit on this card. Now, I've thought about just moving it to a single monthly payment somewhere close to the due date. But biweekly is my current habit, and I'm comfortable with it.

The card on which I'm carrying the almost-maxed-out balance at 0% is for strictly that -- they're loaning me money at 0%, and I'm taking all they'll give me and tucking it into my ING account to arbitrage and earn the interest. (Easy money is easy money.) Until the deal runs out in October, I'll make the monthly minimum payments. Do I take a hit on my FICO for this? Yeah, but I have no plans for big purchases or new accounts anytime soon, so I don't much care.

Blogger Michael
, at 11:04 PM, April 05, 2005  
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