Putting all your monthly bills on Disney Visa?

[tnd]

I do this, mostly because our utilities only take Visa or Discover (with no fee) and I don't have a Discover card. There is no issue with our budget because we have a large buffer in the checking account. I prefer having these on an auto-pay so I never forget to pay them.

 

[JanaDee]

I second Marionette's question - how are you afraid you'll spend more?

Anything that can be paid by credit card, does get paid by credit card. I split most things between a few cards. I also change things up, for instance, when I know I will be going to Disney in a few months, I may change a few bills to Disney. Or if I'm low on SW points, I'll use that card.

I thought I was going to be able to pay my property taxes (which would've been a nice Disney dinner), but the fees were more than the rewards were worth (on any of my cards)!!

Also, PP, who said everything charges fees. Any utilities that used to charge fees don't anymore, so double check!!

Sure they do. Our does.

 

[scard192]

with electric bills skyrocketing, I think I will check to see if my provider takes credit cards with no fees

 

[havaneselover]

Sure they do. Our does.

Yep. My gas, electric, and water bills would charge me a fee to pay with credit card. I just double checked.

 

[Pooh2]

Our electric company charges a fee but most of our other monthly bills go on our Disney Visa. It does not accumulate that quickly but at the end of the year, we have some free money that we keep for disney dining.

 

[JanaDee]

Yep. My gas, electric, and water bills would charge me a fee to pay with credit card. I just double checked.

Me, too. LOL

 

[rnorwo1]

I also pay everything I can with reward cards. We take several vacations each year, and we almost always have free flights and sometimes free hotel stays, too.

But.... Yes, it can affect your budget negatively, depending on how mindful you are of your budget. I am not one of these super organized budget people, so when I first started using credit cards 20 years ago (before marriage and kids), I got into a cycle of using the next month's income to pay for the bill. In other words, At some point I had gradually spent the currently available money while also charging on the cards. I was still always able to pay the card in full, but if something ever happened, it was going to be easy to suddenly have accumulated debt (although, it would not have been much).

So, I stopped using the cards until I got out of that cycle (took about two months) before using them again, and then I made sure that I was sticking with the money I had. Since I don't have a written budget, I just have to pay the cards every few days. We also now have a very comfortable cushion, so I would have to get crazy on the cards to get in that situation again.

So, I think to answer your question, you need to decide what type of financial personality you have, and that will influence whether or not this will negatively affect your budget. I think everyone who has responded that it definitely will not are likely very organized and disciplined with their budgets. I wish I were like them, but I'm not organized, so I have to be very mindful of the spending. We are very disciplined, so it's unusual for me to be surprised by our bills, but it can sneak up on you.

I hope you are able to work it out, travel rewards are amazing!

 

[ekatiel]

We have recently started charging all non-recurring expenses (groceries, gas, etc) on our Chase Sapphire Preferred card. While I like the rewards, I am hesitant to transfer recurring bills over to the card because I've recently just made sure that all our recurring debits are linked directly to our account and not to my debit card. I changed this after both my and DH's debit cards were victims of a couple of the large information hacks within the past year or so (the Target one, and I can't even remember what got DH's card--Dairy Queen, maybe?!). After we had to get new debit cards, it was a pain to try and figure out which of our auto withdrawals were from each of our debit cards versus which were directly from the account. For each that were from the debit cards, we had to switch the info with the company. After that, I vowed to have all our recurring stuff directly related to our account so that we wouldn't have to go through the hassle again if one of our cards was compromised. Just a thought.

 

[msmama]

I second Marionette's question - how are you afraid you'll spend more? Anything that can be paid by credit card, does get paid by credit card. I split most things between a few cards. I also change things up, for instance, when I know I will be going to Disney in a few months, I may change a few bills to Disney. Or if I'm low on SW points, I'll use that card. I thought I was going to be able to pay my property taxes (which would've been a nice Disney dinner), but the fees were more than the rewards were worth (on any of my cards)!! Also, PP, who said everything charges fees. Any utilities that used to charge fees don't anymore, so double check!!

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like a definite. What I meant to say was that any of mine that did have a fee a few years ago don't anymore. It was a suggestion to double check, not a demand, lol.

 

[disneyfab]

So I guess it's the same principle, just depends on what rewards are most valuable to you. It's very doable and I make payments very often so it doesn't get out of control. I would say during a typical month I make 10-15 payments.

This is how it works for us. Not a Disney Visa because we other cashback rewards cards that work better for us. We put everything that doesn't charge an additional fee on our cards.

Dh was weary of this when we started because he didn't care for credit cards and liked to use money straight from the bank account. So, I would transfer the amount of money into savings that we charged daily. This helped for it to be "gone" from the account in his mind and stay within budget.

I pretty much live by a budget didn't have to do the extra. Dh is now like this and we know longer have to shift the money to savings.

It took him awhile to be comfortable using more than one card. We have an everyday card for max cash back on non-category spending, a gas and grocery card, a category card (bonus cashback and shopping portal), an airline reward card used for household bills and expenses, and some pay over time no or deferred interest cards that we may use for a larger purchase.

He is now just as good as I am at know which card to use when to maximize rewards and cashback. This took a little longer but once he figured it out, he rarely made mistakes or had to pay interest.

I agree about making regular payments every 2-3 days when you first start. Don't charge anything that requires a fee. I am still one of the few parents that sends a check to the school for lunch and fee trips but each account (per child!) payment incurs a $2.95 fee.

 

[AlohaNow]

What an amazingly timely discussion! We are awaiting arrival of our new SW cc’s in the mail. Got the 50,000 mile offer in the mail in December. As nearly our entire financial life is on auto-pilot, I made a little list of what I will need to change over from checking automatic debit to automatically charging on the new card. The only two that charge a fee are electric/gas and water so they will remain as is. Oh, and Comcast has never been on auto pay because I simply don’t trust them! (I’m sure many of you can relate!)

So we plan to exchange the debit cards in our wallets for the new SW cards and use them for absolutely everything. I’m so tired of not being rewarded every time we swipe! We swipe a LOT. But using debit all the time was really healthy for us in terms of knowing that we are actually affording everything we are buying. So now that we are on a good path, and have been for quite a while, I feel confident that the complete switch-over to a rewards credit card will be successful. But I too had the same thought as OP before committing. Thinking that it may change our habits somehow and that we’d put more stuff on it. But I think we’re now pretty well ‘trained’ and we’ll do OK. I plan to write all SW charges into the checkbook in red pen as if it were a debit transaction and then transfer the ‘red’ amount of money to pay the card every two weeks. How do you all handle the accounting of transactions and payments to your ‘everyday’ rewards credit card? Do you have a better way?

I’m so tired of not being able to fly anywhere because “we don’t have the money”. Oh, I tell you, we will be getting far more than our $99 worth out of SWAir!

 

[disneyfab]

Thinking that it may change our habits somehow and that we’d put more stuff on it. But I think we’re now pretty well ‘trained’ and we’ll do OK. I plan to write all SW charges into the checkbook in red pen as if it were a debit transaction and then transfer the ‘red’ amount of money to pay the card every two weeks. How do you all handle the accounting of transactions and payments to your ‘everyday’ rewards credit card? Do you have a better way?

Dh had this fear and I did have to remind him in the beginning, "This is NOT pay over time with interest." Keep track of your spending the same way you always have to get used to the plan.

We now just log in to pay our cards twice a month on payday. We have progressed our routine from savings switching to every 2-3 days to twice a month.

But sometime, I will still log in and make an extra payment or two if we had additional spending and I don't want my statement to close with an abnormally high balance (anything making my utilization appear to be more than 40%).

 

[scard192]

Oh, and Comcast has never been on auto pay because I simply don’t trust them! (I’m sure many of you can relate!)

I put my Comcast charges on the Dis Visa, I just go in and pay it manually.

I don't like auto pay for a number of reasons, one being it seems like some companies take the money way earlier than I would pay it myself. My Comcast bill is due the 15th, I pay it on the 12th usually.

 

[Minnesota!]

I pay all bills with my southwest visa and pay off each payday. I have earned lots and lots of miles doing so... We typically fly for free or close to it.

 

[Candleshoe]

We don't do it with our DV, it simply doesn't earn enough points to make it worth it. I do, however, charge everything to our Southwest Airlines card since flights are usually a large expense in travelling. We also like that we can fly anywhere SWA flies, and not necessarily committed to just Disney.

So I guess it's the same principle, just depends on what rewards are most valuable to you. It's very doable and I make payments very often so it doesn't get out of control. I would say during a typical month I make 10-15 payments.

I wish I understood how to use those miles! SW always expires my miles before I can use them.

 

[Osugal9]

Does anyone know how often the disney visa offers the $200 back when you spend $500 promo?

 

[GrnMtnMan]

Does anyone know how often the disney visa offers the $200 back when you spend $500 promo?

Its a sign-up bonus for getting the card the first time. So once.

Early in my membership they offered 5% back on some categories for 90 days or something, but they haven't offered that since. The ongoing 2% back for Disney, grocery, and restaurants purchases still make it valuable.

 

[laceyinwonderland]

I am able to pay my cable/ internet, security system, natural gas, car insurance, and cell phone with my CC.

I can use it for water with no fee, but I have to manually call in to pay, and I dont have time for that, so it is auto pay with my checking account. I cant make a CC payment for power or mortgage at all, like most PP's.

It adds up!! Ive never once regretted it, or felt it increased my spending habbits. Like other PP's I pay it twice a month following my pay day.

 

[3boymthr]

True. Our gas/electric, sewer and water bills all charge fees to pay by cc. So for those we use our bank's bill pay service. Everything else goes on our SW card.
(cell phone bill, cable/internet, car insurance, gas, groceries, etc.)

My car insurance company charges a 5% fee to use a credit card to pay. Of course they also charge $2.25 to pay online by direct debit instead of sending a check by mail

ETA - OTH - I can pay DS' college tuition bill online by credit card for no fee. I'm getting $40 in rewards for each bill!