Saturday, October 10, 2009

Going Against Conventional Wisdom...continuing to use my credit cards

Yes...even with the mess I'm in, I'm still using a couple of the credit cards. But, I'm only using them for purchases that I can (and do) immediately make an online payment when I get home. I'm not giving myself the temptation of holding onto those dollars for 30-45 days until the payment is due. By following this strategy, I'm still earning rewards credits and in the case of my Kroger card I was actually able to avoid any monthly interest charges since my payments totaled more than the balance shown on the previous statement.

I received the statement in the mail today and it shows:

Previous Balance $958.23
Payments/Credits -$1,061.76
Transactions $817.46
FINANCE CHARGES $0.00
New Balance $713.93

I was able to immediately pay the $817.46 of current month's charges plus $244.30 towards the balance on this card. At this point in my life, I am so focused on debt balances that I'm taking the extra time to track this, make 10 or 11 online payments during the month. If I find that life is getting too busy to keep up with this, I'll just quit using the card and go back to paying cash or writing checks. But if I can save even $10/month in interest it's worth it to me right now to be hyper-focused.

The good news is that this balance dropped $244.30 this month! Woo Hoo!


1 comment:

  1. I tried continuing to use my credit cards like this, but I always get in trouble when I REALLY can't afford something but I still want it... and that credit card is sitting at me in my wallet practically BEGGING me to keep using it.

    It is a fine line to walk, I hope you have better self control than I do!

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