Increase the Grace Period on your credit cards

medieval_3

Dear Friends:

I am an American Expatriate living and working in this great country and I wanted to suggest something that I have done in the United States, but am not really sure if this will work here in the UK since I am not sure if the credit card system works the same as it does in the USA....maybe someone can confirm that this system will work for you?

In a nutshell, here is the system and how it works: When you open a credit card account, the card has a "grace period" that allows you time to pay off the balance at the end of the month. In the USA, the grace period is usally 30 days....here in the UK, I understand the period is up to 45 days. This system allows you to choose which day and which card to use so that your purchases don't post immediately after you use the card.

In order to do this in the USA, you need three credit cards .Take your three credit cards and call the banks that issued them and request that the "closing days" be set for the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month for each respective card.

Then put a piece of tape on each credit card with the date that the card posts your transactions. When you make a purchase in a store, use the card with the newest closing date, or the card that just posted your transactions on the statement. For example: If you are shopping on the 11th of September, you would use the card that closes on the 10th and has already posted all of your transactions for that statement.

What this will essentially do is give you a whole month of extra "grace period" before you have to pay for the transaction. So in essence, you are earning a month of free grace period just for using the right card in your wallet.

Normally, in the USA, if you have just one card and you make a purchase on the 11th and the card closes on the 12th, that purchase made on the 11th has to be paid in the 30 day grace period, BUT if you make that purchase on the 13th, that purchase doesn't get posted until a whole month later and then you have another thirty days to pay it.

However, since this is an American idea, I am not sure if it will work here in the UK? Any help?

Medieval

Thefunkygibbons

That would work

The grace period here varies a bit by issuer but in many cases, whilst it averages 45 days, it can be 59 days

The challenge for such a system would be
1. Do you get the same cash back on every card?
2. Can you get enough credit rating on each for it to work

For me, I prefer stoozing so I only want one spending card, but for others, not a bad idea at all

zcaprd7

Quite a good idea, especially as the new Egg blue is 1% cash back (and most of us 'should' still have the Amex blue).

If the shop takes both amex and matercard, then the statement date should decide...

Afahmaep

Having reached a peak of 21 personal valid credit cards back in May 2005 I had noticed that most of my CC statements arrived in the middle of the month. If I went away in that week there was a mountain of mail when I returned with a wealth of personal financial information all lumped together on my doorstep
Accordingly I requested the statement dates be altered so that they were more spaced out. HFC were the most accomodating allowing you to alter the statement date online (MARBLES, PARTNERSHIP and GM have all been changed this way) and if you were particularly canny give you an extra months interest free credit if you got your timing right. I believe most if not all CC companies will alllow you to change the date of your bill ONCE per year. I had thought about altering my date wtih HFC every second month in effect only getting 6 bills per year but assumed they would soon cotton on.

I am now down to 18 valid cards spaced out ever so conveniently every second day from 2nd to 30th of each month with both MBNA and Barclaycard statements arriving together.

M_Thomson

medieval wrote:

Normally, in the USA, if you have just one card and you make a purchase on the 11th and the card closes on the 12th, that purchase made on the 11th has to be paid in the 30 day grace period, BUT if you make that purchase on the 13th, that purchase doesn't get posted until a whole month later and then you have another thirty days to pay it.

However, since this is an American idea, I am not sure if it will work here in the UK? Any help?

Medieval

Hi,
This isn't an American idea, it works in just the same way with credit cards over here.