Making a payment to credit card, when is the best time?

chelle

If you do not pay off the card in full every month, when is the best time to make a payment?

Is it as soon as the statement arrives, (do you pay less interest?), or as long as payment is received by the due date, the interest remains the same?

Thank you

Chelle

keith1950

Hi, paying as soon as statement arrives should reduce the next months interest and also makes sure you dont forget about it.

YorkshireBoy

chelle wrote: »

Is it as soon as the statement arrives, (do you pay less interest?), or as long as payment is received by the due date, the interest remains the same?

Interest accrues daily, so the earlier you pay the less interest accrues.

Neither of your options are "best"....which is to pay as soon as your statement has been produced (not when it arrives...which could be some days later). Online access will help here.

CLAPTON

interest builds up on a daily basis, so paying as early as possible does reduce the interest a little.
better of course to stop spending on the card and clear the debt completely and pay no interest

chelle

Thank you everyone.

I thought that it would be the case, and is what I have been doing.

I dont spend on the cards, am trying to pay them off, but some months more can be paid off that other months IYSWIM.

chattychappy

Yep, as soon as possible. But bear in mind that if you pay so soon as to pay before the statement is generated, then another payment will be due after the statement is generated and before the due-by date.

Once you are not paying the full statement balance, you will be paying interest on every transaction from the date of the transaction until when paid off. One way to do things more efficiently is to have 2 cards - a "pay in full card" and a "pay interest card". Put purchases on to one card until you reach the limit of what you can pay off in full. Then put any further transactions through on a second card. (Of course you still have to have enough to pay the minimum on this one.) That way at least you will benefit from the interest free period on at least some transactions. The saving is particularly significant if you often find yourself "almost" but not quite being able to pay off the full balance.

(And of course there are various introductory offers.)

Fiddlestick

chattychappy wrote: »

Yep, as soon as possible. But bear in mind that if you pay so soon as to pay before the statement is generated, then another payment will be due after the statement is generated and before the due-by date.

Just pay as soon as possible after the statement date.

chattychappy

Fiddlestick wrote: »

Just pay as soon as possible after the statement date.

I disagree if this suggests delaying payment until a statement is generated. I would "refine" this to:

"Pay as much as you can as soon as you can (whatever the statement date), making multiple payments if necessary, but not to the extent of risking not meeting a minimum payment in a subsequent payment cycle."

Fiddlestick

chattychappy wrote: »

I disagree if this suggests delaying payment until a statement is generated. I would "refine" this to:

"Pay as much as you can as soon as you can (whatever the statement date), making multiple payments if necessary, but not to the extent of risking not meeting a minimum payment in a subsequent payment cycle."

I thought that was implicit, but I guess I wasn't clear enough