How many CC....

[mom23boys]

We have:

1 Main Checking Account
1 Checking Account for me (Amazon and Arbonne)
1 Checking Account (Business Account for DH)
2 Savings Accounts
5 Credit Cards (working the snowball effect)
1 ING Account
3 529 Accounts

I pay most bills online most are due at the end of the month.

 

[mannasn]

I actually one have one checking account, one savings account and zero credit cards. Guess I'm a minority - but I don't have that much extra $$ to spread around, anyway! (broke student) LOL

 

[disneysteve]

I'm working on NO credit cards, once I pay down the debt I'm closing them all then opening a Disney credit card to earn money for Disney vacations, but I'll pay it off at the end of each month. No more paying stupid interest for me!

Two things:
1. Closing CC accounts you've had for a while can lower your credit score.
2. Having a credit card does not automatically mean "paying stupid interest." Just pay the balance in full each month and there is no interest to be paid.

 

[Renate_do]

Hi,

thanks for your answers so far. Its really interesting to read as there seems to be so many differences in financial thing. Here you can only pay for your groceries at two chains (Walmart and real) with CC. You are not able to pay your bills by CC. The credit you get with the CC here is mostly between 1000 and 5000€ and the downpayment must be at least 10% or 50€.

Some of you mentioned the snowball effect. May you please explain what you mean by this?

Greets Renate

 

[etwinchester]

Snowball effect is when you pay the lowest balance credit card (according to Dave Ramsey) and then once it's paid off, you take that minimum payment you were making and appy it to the next card.

Example:

1. Visa Card with $55.00 minimum and a balance of 1,000

You pay $55.00 or more if you can until it's paid off. Then you apply that $55.00 (or what you were paying) to the next card. Thus making the new payment for card #2, $155.00 until it's paid in full.

2. Master Card with $100 minimum and a balance of 2,000.

3. Store Card with $130 minimum and a balance of 2,500. (once card 1 & 2 are paid, your new payment would be $285.00; minimum paymens of all 3 added together)

Some suggest paying off the card with the highest interest rate so you save money, but some find it easier to use Dave's method and pay the lowest balance to keep them motivated.

 

[pearlieq]

We have:

1 general checking account
1 bank savings account (annual, irregular expenses and small "surprises")
1 ING savings account (emergency fund and big-ticket purchases)
1 401k
2 reward CCs used for any possible expense and paid off each month
2 bank CCs, rarely used and kept open mostly to establish a longer credit history (DH and I are fairly young)
1 CC issued by DH's work for expenses

In the near future there will also be 2 Roth IRAs and one more ING savings acct for travel and home improvment expenses.

 

[Renate_do]

Snowball effect is when you pay the lowest balance credit card (according to Dave Ramsey) and then once it's paid off, you take that minimum payment you were making and appy it to the next card.

How can you do this? Here you would have to get the money from one card at the cash mashine for a horrible fee of 10$ each transaction, put the money into you bankaccount and assign it to your CC-account.

All things that have to do with CC seems to be teribble complicated here at Germany.

 

[DMRick]

We have several credit cards, all for different reasons, and all get paid off each month.

Citibank, mine...gives me 5% back for gas, groceries and drugs, and 1% off on everything else, up to $300 a year back.

Citibank, hubby's..same as above, but because we applied separately, we each get the $300 limit.

At & T, gives me 5% back on restaurants, including fast food, airfare, hotels

GM, gives me 5% back towards purchase of a GM vehicle..up to $700 a year.

Citibank Driver's edge, gives me 2 1/2% towards any car purchase, new or used, up to $500 a year.

We charge everything, and use different cards depending on the reward. Once we hit the reward on the citibanks, we fill up the gm and drivers edge. We use credit for everything. I seldom have more than $10 in my wallet. I make those cc's work for me, and never pay a penny of interest.

I have a savings, 2 checkings (one for my business) and an etrade account which is savings, stocks and checking.

 

[bdcp]

How can you do this? Here you would have to get the money from one card at the cash mashine for a horrible fee of 10$ each transaction, put the money into you bankaccount and assign it to your CC-account.

All things that have to do with CC seems to be teribble complicated here at Germany.

No, that's not what was meant. Not using one card to pay off the other, but using the freed up money from having one card paid off to put against the other card. Once your debt on one card is paid off and your balance is zero, take what you were paying towards that card and add it to what you are paying on a card you still owe on.

 

[got2lovedisney]

Renate...maybe this explanation of the Snowball effect will help...For example:

The monthly amount I can send to all credit cards is: $500.00

I send $100 to card A, $200 to card B and $200 to card C.
When card A is paid off, I send: 0 to card A, $300 to card B and $200 to card C.
When card A&B are paid off, I send: 0 to card A, 0 to card B and $500 to card C.

Even though you pay-off a credit card, you continue making the same monthly payments(in this case $500), you just transfer the amount from card to card until they are all paid off.

 

[WeLoveThePoly]

We have -

> 1 checking account
> 3 savings accounts (1 is DD's)

> 1 credit card (the Disney Visa of course!)

As far as paychecks we get paid via Direct Deposit -

> I get paid the 15th and last day of every month
> DH gets paid every other Friday

I usually do a weekly budget and determine what bills are due out of each paycheck. I pay most of my bills online.

Debbie