Pay bills with a credit card?
Citibank will also let you use your check/debit card like a mc or visa which you can use to pay your bills. They have a program with that which will let you earn airline miles. There’s a free (no fee) version which will earn you 1 airline mile for each 2 dollars spent, or a $60 per year version which lets you earn 1 airline mile for each 1 dollar spent. It’s well worth it, I use my debit card like a credit card to buy everything as well as pay my bills and I’ve already earned a free round trip to Europe with some miles left over to spare. This program is the reason I switched to their bank actually and I’ve been very pleased with it.
Call it what you want (good or bad), but when you use a credit card, your credit report shows your high balance. So let’s say you pay $2500/month in bills (including mortgage and car). Let’s also assume you only have one credit card with a limit of $5000. According to your credit report, you’re using 50% of your available credit at all times, which is viewed as bad. This could be moot, of course, since you’ve already used your credit to qualify for your car and house loans. On the other hand, insurance companies use your credit report when issuing policies (which could hurt you in premiums). Additionally, if you need to adjust your mortgage, they’ll take a look at your report.
I set my health insurance up for credit card billing, then my card number got fraudulated. Naturally, I got a new card, and when they billed the old card, it was declined. The catch is that the fine print was that they could charge me a $25 or something fee if the card was declined. Oops. May have been able to get it reversed, but I’m lazy. Of course, I’ve gotten way more than that back with the cash back. Um, another disadvantage is that sometimes you spend a little more so you get a bigger rebate.
Just don’t ever use your credit card’s “convenience checks” as they often charge a percentage fee of anything you pay with them. Otherwise paying bills with a CC is not a bad idea, especially if you can earn cash back for doing so, and you never carry a balance. Just set yourself a reminder to pay your card on time!
