Strongly considering switching everything possible to CC, would make my personal accounting system much easier then the current
Might be obvious, but this is a US question I assume? These systems work differently in Europe.
Yes it is. Very American system. Here in Estonia, to get loans you need proven income and must show your expenses are low enough to allow taking on debt. In the US, you need a ton of history with credit cards and smaller loans I guess, till you can get a mortgage.
The German system is pretty much: never pay late and get no hit. So no credit history is as good as always punctual. So I have never in my life taken on debt as a matter of principle but I would be able to at my convenience.
Paycheck and auto billing to the same checking account. A seprate general use checking accout thats linked to my debit card, so I have to explicitly move money out of the billing account to spend it. Plus a savings account.
CC is for emergency purchases between paychecks, online purchases, or the rare CC required transaction such as rental equipment (Home Depot for example requires a CC, no other options).
That’s what I do. I know my monthly income, and everything gets put on the same card each month so I have a dead simple budget to keep track of. Plus all my payments are on virtual cards, so I don’t care about the number getting stolen in a data breach, they’re all locked by vendor. And I can shut off any virtual card any time I want if a company doesn’t want me to cancel.
Side bonus, I use the cash back as our xmas fund. I know friends that use the miles instead.
As I understand it,
Pro: if your card number is stolen and used, it’s much easier to recover the lost money (than with a debit card)
Con: it’s an additional company that is profiling you.
You may want to read more about how credit scores work and how to build credit in the US.
Reporting a payment (such as rent or utilities) to a credit agency doesn’t always require charging it to a credit card or paying fees.Not sure how any of that works outside the US.
Removed by mod
Not really.
What I do is I pay all of my bills that do not have fees attached to them for being paid with a credit card with a credit card.
I then pay off that credit card every month.
If it has a fee attached to it, like for instance my water bill, they want $3.95 to pay with a credit card, I just pay with direct bank transfer.
The goal is to save money. By doing this I get points back and I build my credit history of months and months and years of spending and paying, showing that I am a reliable consumer.
All told, the points and everything else on my credit cards nets me something like $300 a year, so it’s not groundbreaking, but my credit score is 837.
If you would have to pay for the privilege of using a credit card, then it’s not worth it to use a credit card.
I have a comparable score and my credit card gives me thousands of dollars in benefits every year because I pay for almost everything with it and then pay it off every month.
