Paying monthly bills with credit card

[Granny_Weatherwax]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

[4everHis]

I know many people who do this or a variation of it. The key is being absolutely sure to pay in full every month so you never have interest to pay. Then you'd be losing $$$. Only, only, only do it if you can pay it off EVERY month.

[catz]

We do it.  We pay in full every single month.  We do it on a rewards card for the cash back.  It's much easier to track expenses this way too.  We use very little cash.  My husband is the book keeper so I'm not sure the exact numbers on our cash back but it's definitely been a good approach for us.  We have done it this way for years and we've switched credit cards when DH finds a better deal. 

 

Our current card of choice flags fraud SO easily.   We get a call every 6-8 weeks.  Annoying. 

[solascriptura]

I do this for 90% of our bills. My electric company would charge an extra fee if I used a cc so it’s debited from the checking account.

 

We get well over $1000 back every year from the credit cards.

Edited February 26, 2018 by solascriptura

[FaithManor]

We do this with a Chase Amazon card. We buy from then so much that the reward points for using it to pay bills are worth it. It takes discipline to not carry a balance, but we stick to the budget.

 

The only thing we don't put on it is travel. That goes on a Cap 1 Venture card which is a good one for travelers. This way we get specific points towards hotels and airfare plus some discounts.

[Matryoshka]

We pretty much do this, although I don't think we ever included the mortgage.  But we pay most everything with a cash-back/rewards credit card and pay it off in full.  I'll of course completely agree this does only work if you pay it off to the last penny every month, otherwise instead of saving money you'd be rapidly in the hole.

[Pawz4me]

We don't put our mortgage or utilities on credit cards, but we put everything else we possibly can. Our yearly cash back rewards amount is usually around $1,000. We make a credit card payment every week and never pay any interest.

 

ETA: I'm actually not sure if we ever technically carry a balance or not. Since we make a weekly payment I'm not sure how that would be determined. We have a specific amount budgeted for a weekly payment, which we split between my card and DH's card. Sometimes that pays each of them off completely and sometimes there will be a small amount left on one (which may or may not be paid off in full the next week). But we've used this method for years and haven't paid any interest.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Pawz4me

[QueenCat]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

 

 

Yes, except the Mortgage, as our mortgage company doesn't allow it. We rack up huge points on our Marriott Rewards card, getting around 6-8 hotel nights free every year, sometimes more. We do carry a little cash, but not much.

[marbel]

We pay everything we can with a credit card.  I'd love to put the mortgage on it but our bank doesn't allow it.  A couple utilities charge a fee for credit card use, so those come directly out of the checking account.

 

We pay the bill in full every month without fail.  We also have no-fee credit cards.  (Maybe all credit cards are no-fee now; I don't know.)

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I know there are at least three bills where this would not be allowed for us.  I'm surprised they are able to pay ALL of them this way.

 

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Many of our routine bills will not allow that or they charge a 3% fee.

[Sk8ermaiden]

We do everything except the mortgage on our travel reward card, and would do the mortgage too, except it can't be paid that way. 

[carriede]

Yes, we do that. And pay it off every month. We can use our reward points for hotels, select gift cards, and other goods like tv, tablets, golf clubs,camping chairs, alarm clocks... bunches of stuff.

 

We do not use credit for our car loan and mortgage - we use a local credit union for those and they will not let us "pay a loan with a loan".

 

But I can see if we added in those major expenses, our reward points would jump quite a bit.

 

ETA, our rewards financed our hotel for our 4 day trip to DC last fall. But it'll be a few years before we aquire that amount of reward points again.

Edited February 26, 2018 by carriede

[SeaConquest]

We pay as many expenses as we can, including our business expenses, on our Capital One Venture card. We probably got over 5k back last year since we use it so much.

Edited February 26, 2018 by SeaConquest

[vonfirmath]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

 

I'd be surprised so many people take their Discover card. We tried to do something similar with our American Express but ran into too many companies that didn't take it.  (And then we also ran into the trap of not being able to pay it off and got deeper and deeper into debt)  Turns out we don't have the discipline to do this.

 

 

Edited February 26, 2018 by vonfirmath

[mommyoffive]

You can pay your mortgage that way, but it will cost you. 

Plastiq is 2.5% fee to do so

 

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/can-pay-mortgage-credit-card/

 

 

 

 

We pay everything we can on credit cards and never ever carry a balance.   

We travel hack so we are usually trying to meet new spends on credit cards.  

I wish we had done this years and years ago.  I was always worried that we would mess it up some how.   But it works great for us and it is so worth it.   We now always have our airfare paid for.  We just started do this. 

We have hundreds of thousands of miles right now. 

 

We have payed for a 3 international flights for our family of 7 so far.  

And I save so much money when we go to the airport and eat in the free lounges.  

[goldberry]

So, right now I pay all my bills through my online banking.  If I was going to use a credit card to pay bills, would I have to go to each individual bill and set up for it to automatically charge the credit card?  Is that what people do?

[Frances]

We’ve done it for forever with anything that doesn’t charge a fee for using a credit card. It’s a great way to track spending and we use cash or checks very rarely. We’ve never paid any credit card interest.

[cjzimmer1]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

I've been using my Discover card for 27 years (and have never once paid any interest) and yes I do put everything I can on it.  My mortgage and utilities don't take credit cards put nearly everything else does.  I've never gotten enough cash back to take a vacation but I certainly get a nice chunk back. 

 

I'd be surprised so many people take their Discover card. We tried to do something similar with our American Express but ran into too many companies that didn't take it.  (And then we also ran into the trap of not being able to pay it off and got deeper and deeper into debt)  Turns out we don't have the discipline to do this.

When I was younger, there was quite a few places that didn't take Discover but now it's pretty rare for me to pull out my Visa.  I would say we have less than 20 transactions a year on the Visa everything else goes on the Discover (unless of course they don't take credit at all)

[Selkie]

We do this with our Amex and Visa. We pay everything we possibly can wth them, pay our bills in full every month, and get thousands back every year.

[Frances]

So, right now I pay all my bills through my online banking. If I was going to use a credit card to pay bills, would I have to go to each individual bill and set up for it to automatically charge the credit card? Is that what people do?

Yes. Just check each one to make sure they don’t charge a fee. Our mortgage doesn’t allow it and our basic utilities charge a fee, so we don’t do those with a CC. All of our insurance bills allow a CC for free, but since we never use payment plans for those, some have to be done manually over the automatic phone system once or twice per year.

[shawthorne44]

Our home equity load (no mortgage) are with the same bank, so those are just scheduled bank transactions.  Everything else is by credit card, unless fees would be charged (like property taxes).  I found the trick is to pay it off every paycheck.   

[Carol in Cal.]

I didn't know you can do mortgages this way.

 

I do use a credit card for propane, storage, fire insurance, and phone bills.  I don't think we can do this with water, gas, and electric bills, but you have piqued my curiosity so now I'm going to check.  We could do it with property taxes but the fee is so high that it's not worth it.  And I don't do it with donations because *they* would be charged a big fee.  Of course we do charge groceries and gas in addition to other purchases, and it does add up to good rewards.

 

We have an REI credit card linked to paypal, and the year we bought a used car from a private party and paid with paypal our REI credit bought us enough emergency gear for years, plus some really good shoes.  It was awesome.  Those credit card rewards always feel like pennies from heaven.  

[Elastimom]

Yes, we put most bills on our Discover Card and pay in full at the end of the month. I wish we can put our car loan and a mortgage, too (I asked our banks years ago, but they said no)!

We've been very happy with the Discover Card :)

[J-rap]

We put most things on our card.  We collect air mileage points with it.  We've gotten so many free plane tickets that way!  We even put our dd's quarterly college tuition payments on it.  We always pay it off.

[maize]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

Yep this is what I do.

 

I don't wait for the end of the month to pay it off though, I make two or three payments a month. I do make sure that the last month's balance is paid off before the deadline, I just prefer not to let it all add up first.

 

I never have cash.

[FaithManor]

We put most things on our card. We collect air mileage points with it. We've gotten so many free plane tickets that way! We even put our dd's quarterly college tuition payments on it. We always pay it off.

Yes, semester tuition here. We put it on the card, get the points, then pay it off because we put money away each month for each boy in the amount they need after scholarships and federal student loans.

 

We have earned A LOT of Amazon points but also when we do put it on the Cap card, free hotels, plane tickets, and discounts. I am sure the credit card companies are banking on most people not paying it off in full so they make a profit on the interest. But for us we have been determined not to spend more than we can pay off each month so it has been a very welcome system of rewards for us.

[BarbecueMom]

The only one we do this with is the trash bill. The rest charge a fee equal to or higher than the cash back amount, or do not allow it at all.

 

Scratch that, electric bill fee is about half the amount of the cash back reward. Off to change that...

[cjzimmer1]

I will also add another reason why I love my Discover Card.  When Landry closed unexpectedly, Discover refunded me the value of my unused credits that were purchased 2 1/2 years prior.  Visa and Mastercard were pretty hardcore about purchases more than a year old but Discover didn't bat an eye at the length of time (I did have to go around with them about another issue but the age of it was never questioned).

[SparklyUnicorn]

I didn't know you can do mortgages this way.

 

You generally can't. 

 

And apparently in the unusual instances you can, they charge a fee.

[FaithManor]

I should state that we do not have a mortgage. So we don't know if it is possible to pat that way or not, or if there would be fees, or whatever.

[VaKim]

We don't have a mortgage, but we do everything else this way. We use an Amazon Visa and use the points for a statement credit, as you end up getting more out of them that way. If you use your points for an Amazon purchase, you do not accrue any points for that purchase. But yeah. We just pay it off every month. 

[ChocolateReignRemix]

DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

 

We do this with the exception of our mortgage and our HOA fee.  We do use some cash also but don't use our debit cards.

 

[Alessandra]

I put everything I possibly can on credit cards. I have several and use the one that gives me the best cash back for what I am purchasing. I also look at other benefits, such as rental car insurance being covered or warranties on purchases. Besides the cash back, you can get a great credit history.

[edelweiss]

We put absolutely everything we can on our credit cards. We do not have a mortgage. We always pay it in full each month. We get so much back in rewards ( cash on one card; hotels points on the other). We have been doing this for years.

[Acorn]

I use Discover card for anything that we can. Off hand, I think our mortgage, kids’ music lessons, and a few of the utilities, do not accept discover.

We budget to pay it in full each month, so why would we turn down the free money? It funds our holiday season.

[flyingaway]

We do the same thing although I was bummed it wasn't possible with the mortgage and a couple of utilities. Apparently you can't do it for tuition at most schools either because the fee makes it not worth it. We are able to do our church tithe on the card now. The cash back bonus funds our Amazon habit.

[freesia]

We do it ( not mortgage). I don't know how much we earn back. Some of it goes in a field trip fund for me to use. I'm not sure wher the other part goes. We never ever carry the balance. We pay it off as though there were no other option.

[vonfirmath]

We do the same thing although I was bummed it wasn't possible with the mortgage and a couple of utilities. Apparently you can't do it for tuition at most schools either because the fee makes it not worth it. We are able to do our church tithe on the card now. The cash back bonus funds our Amazon habit.

 

You might talk to your church about how much they are paying for your cashback.  We have gone back to tithing by check after we discovered the cut that was being taken out of computer-processed tithes.

 

[dirty ethel rackham]

I have a no-fee rewards credit card that I use for anything that doesn't charge an extra fee to use credit. And I pay it off every month. Even in the months where I have messed up and had to pay interest, it was still worth it in the long run.

 

I use the travel miles to fund much of the travel for dd's climbing competitions. Usually 4 round trip airline tickets, plus some hotel accommodations.

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I must say I am surprised at how many families bank this way. I can see the benefit of it if the discipline is there. I like the idea oaf paying it every payday and not once a month. Using it for college tuition payments would be wonderful and a great way to get cash back; if there are no fees from the school of course.

 

I think I'll look into it and try it for a month or two to see if the rewards are worth it. 

[SKL]

Yes, I do this to the extent practical.  It's nice because you don't have to worry about your checking account balance, forgetting to mail a bill, etc.  It's also financially smart because you can be earning interest in your cash account while also earning points on your credit card.  The points can be cashed in at above $1 to $1 value if you have time to do the work.  (For example, a gift card worth $25 for $20 worth of points that actually cost you nothing).  It can give you a pretty good start on Christmas.

Edited February 27, 2018 by SKL

[StaceyinLA]

We do this with a Chase Disney Visa. I WISH I could put my mortgage too, but haven’t been able to figure out how to do that. We put just about everything else. I usually earn around $600/year toward Disney from just doing our basic, monthly stuff. We do each keep our monthly spending money in cash because it’s just too difficult to track how much we (well, mostly dh) are just blowing otherwise.

 

We are also doing our remodel all on a Chase Freedom card (which we never use otherwise, but we had it sitting empty, so I decided to use it during the remodel). We’ll be putting upwards of $30K on it over the course of the remodel (and paying it off in between of course), and it’s gonna give me an extra $400-500 or so to buy some new kitchen items when we are done!

Edited February 27, 2018 by StaceyinLA

[KingM]

I pay whatever I can by credit card for the sake of convenience. I also have automatic payments on the cards so they're paid off every month on the same date. It's handy, but you have to make sure you keep your checking account balance high enough to avoid nasty overdraft surprises.

[Annie G]

I put most expenses on my Chase card but I must not be spending that much since we don’t end up with enough rewards to pay for a vacation. Dh uses a different reward card but he spends a lot less than I do since I handle most household expenses. Together we earn about $400 a year.

 

We weren’t ever able to use our credit card for college tuition. One school wouldn’t take it and the other charged 5% to use it so even with rewards it wasn’t cost effective.

 

Dh gets paid every two weeks so I pay the credit card that way too. It works well for me because I am facing my expenses every two weeks instead of only once a month. If I find I’m spending more than I like I can make adjustments then.

 

What do you guys do with your rewards? Dh redeems his on amazon purchases while I just use them to lower my monthly bill every couple of months. I’ve been thinking that maybe I should use them for gift cards for Christmas or something.

[KrissiK]

I do that. Not all of our bills, though, because some places charge a fee for using a credit card. We get a significant amount cash back. I pay all our credit cards off each month.

[mommyoffive]

I put most expenses on my Chase card but I must not be spending that much since we don’t end up with enough rewards to pay for a vacation. Dh uses a different reward card but he spends a lot less than I do since I handle most household expenses. Together we earn about $400 a year.

 

We weren’t ever able to use our credit card for college tuition. One school wouldn’t take it and the other charged 5% to use it so even with rewards it wasn’t cost effective.

 

Dh gets paid every two weeks so I pay the credit card that way too. It works well for me because I am facing my expenses every two weeks instead of only once a month. If I find I’m spending more than I like I can make adjustments then.

 

What do you guys do with your rewards? Dh redeems his on amazon purchases while I just use them to lower my monthly bill every couple of months. I’ve been thinking that maybe I should use them for gift cards for Christmas or something.

 

I think unless you have lots of expenses you are not going to earn enough rewards to pay for a vacation by just using one card.  We hack so we are opening new cards to get the spends on those.  

 

The CSR had a 100,000 point on 4k spend.  Dh and I both got one.  Spend 8k and got 200,000

 

We both got the United cards for 70,000 points after 4k or 3k spend.   So that got us 140,000 united points. 

 

Some cards you can get 60,000 points by putting one purchase and paying the AF.   We just did American Airlines card that got did that, so now we have 120,000 American Airline points. 

 

 

We use our rewards to pay for my international travel addiction. 

 

If anyone needs a would be so kind to use me as your link if you want a Chase Reserve, Chase Preferred, a Chase United, or a Barclay American Airlines cards let me know. 

Edited February 27, 2018 by mommyoffive

[Χά�ων]

I know there are at least three bills where this would not be allowed for us. I'm surprised they are able to pay ALL of them this way.

I wonder as well. We pay as much as possible with the credit card and then pay it off. I specifically asked if I could put the mortgage on a credit card and I was told it was not allowed. Same with insurance and something else I did not care enough about to spare the braincells to remember.

[Χά�ων]

I think unless you have lots of expenses you are not going to earn enough rewards to pay for a vacation by just using one card. We hack so we are opening new cards to get the spends on those.

 

The CSR had a 100,000 point on 4k spend. Dh and I both got one. Spend 8k and got 200,000

 

We both got the United cards for 70,000 points after 4k or 3k spend. So that got us 140,000 united points.

 

Some cards you can get 60,000 points by putting one purchase and paying the AF. We just did American Airlines card that got did that, so now we have 120,000 American Airline points.

 

 

We use our rewards to pay for my international travel addiction.

Please teach me! I do some things already and have been able to cover domestic trips, but I am always open to other options. I know if I signed up for an instant cash back program and bought gift cards at stores I shop at I could gain more which is awesome, except I do not shop. Those I knew who were doing it and making the most shopped competitively.

 

We are minimalists and I cannot tell you the last time I set foot inside a big box store except to buy dairy products. Even our groceries are not bought through chain grocery stores. Except the dairy, then it is Costco.

[Shellydon]

We do this. I have a couple of bills that I have to pay by check, but everything else is on a. Southwest airlines credit card. We earn 6-10 free flights each year and use it to travel.