For those of you who pay off in full each month

molerat

20aday wrote: »

In my case (I'm paid weekly) I allocate myself a budget and go from there.

I save it aside in my Club Lloyds a/c and then pay it off the day after the statement's available.

And forego all that lovely interest ?

SeduLOUs

Anthorn wrote: »

My goal was actually to leap-frog over two months but I never got there.

I'm working on my buffer now. I think of it in terms of "how many months will I be able to survive without missing any contractual payments, and without selling all my stuff if I lose my job?"

Currently the answer is 1. Possibly 2 if I act fast to stretch my grocery budget and cut out all of the non-essentials. But it's not much of a net - ideally I want the answer to be 6 (but that's a pretty big savings pot to build up and leave alone when I'm trying to buy a house!)

I guess people who pay last month's credit card bills with this months money would have an answer of <1 (assuming there are no savings of course). It's fine while everything ticks along but it can come unstuck very quickly with a bout of unpaid sick leave or a lost job.

Piggywiggy

I only have one to boost my credit rating, I have more than enough to pay it off in my account so I just pay it.

Anthorn

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I'm working on my buffer now. I think of it in terms of "how many months will I be able to survive without missing any contractual payments, and without selling all my stuff if I lose my job?"

Currently the answer is 1. Possibly 2 if I act fast to stretch my grocery budget and cut out all of the non-essentials. But it's not much of a net - ideally I want the answer to be 6 (but that's a pretty big savings pot to build up and leave alone when I'm trying to buy a house!)

I guess people who pay last month's credit card bills with this months money would have an answer of <1 (assuming there are no savings of course). It's fine while everything ticks along but it can come unstuck very quickly with a bout of unpaid sick leave or a lost job.

Going back to what I referred to as an advantage, I was able to do it gradually, a day here, a day there etc. Probably if I had to do it now I would do it through savings and similarly start spending later and later every month.

olly300

cakeforbrains wrote: »

...when do you 'pay' your credit card?

First I have more than one credit card.

Secondly all of them are set up to pay the minimum amount as most of them were acquired to take advantage of 0% deals.

This means I pay the bills as soon as I get it otherwise the minimum monthly payment only will be taken out.

cakeforbrains wrote: »

So, if you're somebody who does all your household shopping on a credit card and then pays it off, in full, the following month, which month's paypacket do you allocate to paying the card? The month you're spending in, or next months?

I don't tend to put household shopping on credit cards. I use a debit card.

I use credit cards for larger items, internet purchases and items that are going to delivered by courier. On the rare occasion I've had to use them for more normal everyday purchases e.g. train travel due to a debit card not working

cakeforbrains wrote: »

.
Err... or another way... say you used your CC for all your grocery shopping in May, would you save back money from your May pay packet to pay the bill in June, or would you budget for June's pay to account for the bill? Or do you have enough of a slush fund in your account that it doesn't really matter?:D

I'm self-employed and have been for a good few years so I always now have more money than my current monthly salary floating around.

Sadly due to being a poor student in the past and then being self-employed most purchases on credit cards over £10 (including multiple smaller purchases in a short space of time) are planned. This means if I spend 3K on a credit card one month I know I can pay it off in full as soon as I get the bill.

This sort of planning is needed as lots of self-employed people make the mistake of spending the money for their VAT or other tax bills thinking that they will always have enough work at the time they are due to pay them.

I don't budget excessively now, however I do my own bookkeeping so this means if I plan on making a big purchase I will sit and work things out.

Not doing your own bookkeeping and not keeping money back for tax bills is one of the reasons celebrities and self-employed people get into deep financial trouble.