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As long as you don't carry a balance from month to month, you won't be charged interest. We charge pretty much everything on our cards, from dinners out to a $2 purchase at the drugstore, and we pay it off every month. We get a ton of rewards points for it.
@spoonoutmyheart: You should only incur finance fees if you do not pay the bill in full each month. I say go for it, so long as you know you'll actually pay it off each month. I use American Express because it's a charge card, not a credit card. I have no choice, charge cards must be paid in full at the end of the month. I do pay a $90 annual fee, but I get way more back each year in rewards (i usually do Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma gift cards.). I'm not an expert, but I don't think your credit will drop because you pay your card off in full. I would think quite the opposite. But again...I can't say for sure.
um, using your credit card and paying the balance in full is how you get good credit. I would never see it as a bad thing and you won't get charged interest as long as you pay it in full before the due date. I took out an AMEX with Starwood points for wedding expenses and as a result, we earned 5 hotel nights at a 4 star hotel so we're taking a week vacation in April. I highly recommend using your credit card both for he points and the insurance in case a vendor should go out of business.
@vaness13181: My AMEX is a credit card and I only pay a $65 annual fee. Maybe you want to look into some other options or ask them to reduce your fee?
@slicey19: Like I said, mine is not a credit card but a charge card (AMEX Green). I use it for work expenses too and sky's the limit. Sometimes in a month I spend a ton for work and it helps not to have a limit. I charge gas, hotels, flights, dinners with clients, etc. so I earn tons of points. I just wanted the OP to know I pay an annual fee in case she goes looking at some of the AMEX options. They always ask me to get the platinum card because I pay on time, but there is no way that I am going to pay the $400 annual fee just to wave a platinum card around! That's a ridiculous fee (unless you benefit from the extra amenities, but it's just not worth the money to me).
@spoonoutmyheart: As long as you pay off the balance in full every month, you wouldn't incur interest. I don't believe it would have any effect on your credit score, unless you had tons of cards you did this on vs just one.
FYI: Your credit score will go down because you're opening a new account; however it will go back up after you make and pay for your first purchase. Also, the other bees are correct, you will not be charged interest unless you don't pay it off every month.
Having a card and paying it off every month won't incur interest but it will help with your credit because it shows you are using it responsibly. The thing that can make your score drop is charging over 30% of the available limit, carrying a balance, or having too many credit cards open. New credit will temporarily ding your credit score but not much.
Absolutely, as long as you can pay off your card each month, charge it up. I also charge absolutely everything to get benefits of cash back. I hadn't redeemed my cash back off my cards in a few years, but just did and it was over 1k!
yay :)
well i use my chase for points now.
But which do you think is better? AMEX or chase? my chase is 1 point per $1. My amex card gets me % off things. like gas is a certain %, travel another %, restaurants another % number, and all other expenses is 1%.
I dont think it reflects your credit poorly if you pay in full, however if you charge over half your available balance that does affect you. For example if your credit card has a 4k max and you charge 2500k in a month; even if you pay it off in full, it refelcts poorly (though I dont know how much it actually lowers your score, I imagine not that much). There are a lot of weird tricks.
I have the Starwood AMEX too and I love it. I paid for all my hotel rooms for honeymoon in points because all wedding related charges have gone on the card, plus I got a big signing on bonus.
We use our credit card for lots of purchases, but pay it off every month.
Here's a little something we learned about credit and cards:
When we sat down to get a mortgage pre-approval, the banker also told us that your credit will go down if you max out or use 75%+ of the limit every month. They say it's better to use 50% or less of the credit before paying off
Basically, If your limit is $500, and you max out 500, credit will not be as great as if you charge $250, and then pay it off and then charge the other $250, etc.
Weird, I know!
@spoonoutmyheart:Do you have amex Blue? If so, check the fine print on their card. They only give half a percent until you charge 6500 in your reward year, THEN they give you the cash back that is advertised. It's not worth it unless you plan on charging much more than 6500 the year. If you have Chase freedom, I'd go with that one, and make sure to sign up for whatever the quarterly bonus is for the 5% cash back.
I just made assumptions based on amex and chase most popular card, but just make sure to read the fine print regarding their cashback to see which is best to use.
It doesn't drop your credit score unless you are using a lot (more than 1/3-1/2) of your available credit at any given time. Even if it doesn't carry over to where interest is charged, if you were to try to finance a car, house, apply for new credit, etc with more than 1/3 of your credit utilized at that moment, it would ding you.
The good news is that ding goes away quickly once your balance is paid down and stays down. We actually use credit cards with rewards instead of debit cards/cash and have gotten over 90,000 frequent flyer miles this year. It really adds up! We will stop using the cards that way about 9 months-1 year out from shopping around financing for a house.
Use your card. IF AND ONLY IF you are responsible enough to pay it off on time, and if so, then get yourself in a card-using system... like slicey19 said... this is how you build credit. AS you show a strong record of using it and paying it, you'll start to get some offers for zero percent that can help you manage the cash flow of bigger projects... again IF AND ONLY IF you have a full-proof system of earning and paying on time.
Good luck!
@pinkshoes: i have amex that you get from costco. i believe the most i have ever gotten back in a year was $144 for about 4k charge for that year. 4k in charges is equivalent to 4000 points on chase... and that's $40 isn't it? i have chase freedom.
@spoonoutmyheart: oh wow. I think i need to look into that Amex then. That sounds pretty good. The Amex I have is their Blue card and it stinks, I dont even use it. From your info, to maximize rewards, I would do Amex as your main card, then use Chase for the things that fall into their quarterly 5% bonus categories, like right now they offer 5% back on groceries and drugstore.
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with all this wedding stuff that need to be purchased. would it be ok to charge over $100+ payments on the card then pay it off that month the bill is due? I just want to get some points. Might as well right if i'm going to get extra money for it? When you pay it off every month, does it charge you interest? My credit is already excellent, but does this way drop down your credit score since they can't make much money off from you?