Paying Bills with Credit Card to accrue points

I do with as many bills as I can

My wife pays all our home expenses with one, she’s able to write off a percentage as business expenses because her business headquarters is our dining room. We also get rewards and whatnot on top of the write-offs.

Anyway, yes, absolutely take advantage of this if you’re disciplined enough to pay your CC debt monthly

There really is no reason not to put everything you pay on a credit card when allowed if you have the discipline to pay it off every month

Just pay if off as soon as the charge goes through if you have to

Southwest Airlines card and Hilton card - both of them also accumulate points for Budget car rental - pays a substantial portion of our travel costs - and we pay them off monthly, so no interest.

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Pros/Cons?

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Pros - Helps build credit (Revolving credit that won't fall off either), Get Cash Back or Points for Travel, Much Better Fraud Protection than Debit

Cons - None if you pay it(them) off the FULL statement balance EVERY MONTH, Big ones if you don't.

Tips - Keep your Utilization Low (under 10%) to keep your credit up. You can request credit limit increases every six months without a hard inquiry and that will help raise your overall limit so you can charge more and keep your utilization low. You can also add more cards over time that will boost your limit. Your utilization is based on overall limit. If you don't understand what all affects your credit score and how (Payments, Utilization, History, Inquires, New Accounts, etc), you should learn this first before ever getting a card anyway.

For example: Say you have 5 cards with a 20K limit each, your overall limit is 100K. You can charge 10K to one card or spread across all 5 and still only be at 10% utilization.'

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Which cards are most beneficial?

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Really depends on you.

Chase offers good ones for travel points if you fly a good bit and like to stay in hotels. Some cards have annual fees that you have to pay, so you have to justify that cost by the benefits it provides.

Personally, we don't fly that much. Once every other year typically. And we do more VRBOs and camping than hotels. So we go for more straight up cash back cards. Good percentage back is 2-5%

Some of the ones I have.
Citi Double Cash - 2% cash back on anything you use it for.

Citi Custom Cash - 5% cash back on whatever category you spend the most in up to $500 a month. This is my gas card.

Cap One Walmart - 5% cash back on Walmart pickup orders or online orders. - Our main shopping card.

Chase Amazon - 3% back on Amazon, 5% if you have prime I think.

Wells Fargo Autograph - 3% back on cell bill, travel, rental, streaming services, and some other stuff. Also offers free cell phone insurance. -Use this one to pay my cell bill, netflix, vrbo/arbnb, rental cars, and flights I do book.

Redstone Visa signature - 5% Restaurants and Gas, 3% at Wholesale Clubs, Discount stores, Groceries (Not Walmart or target), Utilities, and Phone. I let my wife use this one as her gas card, Sam's shopping, and grocery shopping other than Walmart. And for restaurants

Lowes - 5% off on lowes purchases.


So... it really just depends on you. If you travel a good bit with flights, hotels, and car rentals I would look into chase. If you want something super simple and don't travel a ton just get a 2% cash back card. Or you could do something like me.

Most of those cards require 700+ credit scores to get. So be aware of what yours is before applying. The cap one Walmart probably requires the lowest and could probably get it with a 670 if you are building credit for the first time or rebuilding.

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ros - you get points or miles

Cons - if you don't pay it off every month you're accumulating debt

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Pretty much this, I would add to cons is if they dont allow to pay with a credit card, or give you a cash (checking acct) discount that would override the points/miles/cash back you would get other. T-mobile did this not long ago with us. Said if we switched from a credit card to auto-draft checking acct ACH it would give us a $5 discount I think on our bill each month. $5 certainly outweighs the potentially cash back/points/miles benefit we would otherwise get

I pay every bill possible with a CC. I get 1.5% cashback. I am also disciplined enough to pay off my CC every couple of days.

We pay all bills on delta Amex.
Got “free” tickets to Europe and back twice now via skymiles.

Recommended for all.

Insurance, water, cell, gas, electricity, internet, daycare, etc.

We always had a separate checking for bills and one for spending.

I got a chase freedom 1.5% cash back on all purchases, 3% on dining and we use it for the spending account. Paid off every month. We have a “budget” we want to stay under so it makes our spending habits clear each month.

I also have an abound credit union CC that offers 5% cash back on fuel.

I don’t know why I haven’t added a card for bill pay… guess I need to go do that now.