Paying off Amex Credit Card

TractorFactor

Got the Amex preferred Gold credit card.
Am I right in that it funcitons like any other credit card:

JANUARY - spend some money
FEBRUARY - get a bill
MARCH - they take the money for the bill

Also, when setting up to pay it off, I am confronted with three options:

• Minimium
• Statement Balance
• Total Balance

I don't want to pay any interest, so should I be choosing the "Statement Balance"?  Or will choosing "Total Balance" pay off whatever is on the bill and whatever has been spent thus far?

On-the-coast

pretty standard credit card stuff.  (It’s the Amex charge card that’s different). 

Just pay the statement balance (a few days before due date) if you want to avoid interest.  

Personally I like to pay the total balance - makes me feel better!

WillPS

TractorFactor said:

Got the Amex preferred Gold credit card.
Am I right in that it funcitons like any other credit card:

JANUARY - spend some money
FEBRUARY - get a bill
MARCH - they take the money for the bill

You are billed on the monthly anniversary of your account opening for the previous month's usage. You then have 25 days to settle that bill - although if you pay by DD Amex take this one week before. If your anniversary date is the 1st, then you'd receive a bill on the 1st of the month for the previous month and would need to pay that 25 days later.

TractorFactor said:

Also, when setting up to pay it off, I am confronted with three options:

• Minimium
• Statement Balance
• Total Balance

I don't want to pay any interest, so should I be choosing the "Statement Balance"?  Or will choosing "Total Balance" pay off whatever is on the bill and whatever has been spent thus far?

Statement balance is the amount on your bill

Total balance is the total balance on your account, so if you have been carrying a balance then selecting this would pay it at the next DD interval.

If you do it from the get-go I imagine the consequence of selecfting Statement balance or Total balance would be the same; depends whether Amex grab the balance when they submit the DD or when they generate the statement balance. I'd pick 'statement balance' if you want to pay your card in full every month (avoiding interest), but nothing more.