clearing credit card in full each month / partial payments?

planteria

in terms of a credit file showing consistent 'borrow & repay' and therefore helping to build up a positive credit history, is it important to clear a full monthly Amex balance by DD, or would it be just as positive to spend, leave the DD for the full balance in place, but also make payments to the account during the month? -the latter would suit me fine accounting-wise.:think:

ARH_2

You credit file shows the statement balance once a month - a potential doesn't actually have sight how how much is spent on the card.

Therefore, if you're making mid-month payments and then paying off the balance at the end of the month, it would appear to a future lender reviewing your file that you just don't use the card an awful lot.

For the purpose of building a credit score, this is therefore not recommend. If it help you account and avoid interest and charges, that might be more important that a marginal improvement in credit score

[Deleted User]

Pay in full before the due date and ignore the credit score.

Candyapple

Don't think it matters really, whatever is convenient to you - just don't forget if you are going to make manual payments to only make payments once the statement has been produced, otherwise it looks like you haven't been using the account.

planteria

thank you.. i have expenses coming in to my current account from two companies, one i own, the other is a plc. i think it would be neater to pay expenses from the company i own directly to my Amex account - which is the method by which almost all of my expenses are paid... but i think it probably worth allowing the full monthly spend to be taken by DD. Amex take the payment in full c12 days before the due date, zx81, so no risk of interest or charges, ARH

takman

planteria wrote: »

thank you.. i have expenses coming in to my current account from two companies, one i own, the other is a plc. i think it would be neater to pay expenses from the company i own directly to my Amex account - which is the method by which almost all of my expenses are paid... but i think it probably worth allowing the full monthly spend to be taken by DD. Amex take the payment in full c12 days before the due date, zx81, so no risk of interest or charges, ARH

You should open another current account which pays high interest (assuming you don't already have them all). Then setup the direct debit for the card to come out of this account. You can pay your expenses and any other money you get each month into this account and then it will take the direct debit when its due.

This has two benefits for you:
1 - Shows a higher usage of the card on your credit report which is favorable to lender
2 - You will also earn abit of interest on the money while it is sitting in the account waiting to be taken by the direct debit