Alternating Credit Cards when shopping

missbargain

Long time ago, I read somewhere that there is some clever, but simple way, of extending interest free days when shopping with Credit Cards by alternating their use depending on the statement due date.

Now, I can (sort of) imagine how it would work, buy I have several credit cards, and most of the statements (and hence due dates for paying) are due at about the same time for all of them. All my credit cards are with different banks.

I have two questions for smart people on here:

1)Is there any agreed due date/statement time between the banks so all of them are about the same (eg. beginning of the month), or am I just unlucky?

2) Can someone tell me about the best way to extend the interest free period by alternating cards when shopping. I already have one interest free credit card, but most my other ones are not interest free.

I am the sort of person who pays off my full debt amount on time, so I would love to be able to extend the gap between paying the bills from one credit card to another. As it is at the moment, all my credit card bills arrive, and have to be paid at the same time, which I don't like.

Thank you very much!

Mozette

You can always ask your card providers for a different date of statement. A lot of them are fine with doing this, so you could maybe spread them out a bit.

Going on mine there is no set date for statements - I have mine all over the shop!

missbargain

Really? I didn't know that...All my statements come at the beginning of the month, so all the bills need to be paid about the same time. I will ask my bank about different statement dates, thanks for the info, that is new to me!

leaphaze

I think the technique is to just decide which credit card to use based on the statement date. I tend to have just one credit card in general usage nowadays, but I remember I had 3 a few years ago. I think the statement dates were the 5th, 12th and 26th of the month. So if I was buying something on the 15th, for instance, I'd use the 2nd credit card since it's statement date (and hence payment date) was furthest in the future. Note you're really interested in the payment dates. You can usually get around 52 - 56 days of interest free credit.

As Mozette says you can usually get your statement date changed, probably over the phone. I've just got a Waitrose Credit card and you can change the statement date on the website. :T First change is free, subsequent ones within a year are a tenner, I think.

As I say I just run one credit card at a time and the reason is just simplicity when running the home budget. I like to have the statement for a calendar month so usually change the statement date for new credit cards.

Now here's the good news! Whenever I've changed the statement date, the credit card company just moves the date forward from the starting point of the subsquent statement date, giving a long period of interest free usage. For instance, say the statement date is the 10th, and I want the 1st, you'd think your next statement would have a short period of around 20 days going from the 10th to the 1st of the following month, but they seem to like long statement periods. I've had 50 days in these circumstances. I think that's why Waitrose charge for subsequent changes to stop people do this time after time.