To think most people don’t actually pay off their credit cards in full each month?

I have had a credit card for nearly 30 years and have always paid it off.
I use it for various reasons - one the added insurance, the rewards (we have 3 now one cashback one nectar and one that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees. Finally the get paid 4 days after salary come in so it is a form of spending management.

the only thing that has changed as we get older is how much we can spend on it!

I do now, although didn't when I was younger, cost myself loads with the 'free' money! I mainly use it for holidays, or other big purchases, for the protection. If I've not got to go on it I put maybe £50 on just to keep my credit rating up. After racking up debt in my 20s I absolutely hate the thought of owing money now!

My husband and I have always worked as “we”. I was 18 when he got his first credit card and I was an additional cardholder. I’ve been an additional cardholder on every card he’s ever had since then. “We” as a team don’t spend more than we have. I do have my own card now as I realised I’ve never had credit in my own name (apart from mortgage which was paid off years ago). Bank account is joint and either one of us can pay off any of the cards as all the details are saved in the payments part of the app. We don’t have to actively tell each other anything. It’s all there on the app, no secrets, no issues, totally straightforward.

Completely agree with you.

I have been in situations where my dh has been made redundant, we’ve had a roof that needed work done (wasn’t covered by insurance) and no savings and no way to pay for it otherwise. We used a 0% cc to do a money transfer as it was the cheapest way of borrowing money. We then had a toilet crack (£250 to fix / replace / repair) and then our boiler needed £450 of work done. It was easy to end up with quite a hefty cc debt. So what else could we have done in that situation? No one would buy a house with the problems it had if we tried to sell it, and we’d make a loss on it unless we fixed them first, we could afford to pay the debt back monthly, but not in full. It made sense to do it that way.

Thankfully dh got another job and we’ve been hacking away at it all since.

If you’re a fairly high income family and have been able to squirrel away rainy day money or live in rented accommodation where a landlord will step in to fix broken stuff it’s easier to stay out of debt (although yes obviously renting has less security than owning etc) but I really hate it when people are judgy about people using cc or being in debt. If you haven’t had to be in that situation you are lucky.

I always do.

I do now, i got myself in debt when i was younger and have only just managed to clear it all in the past 18 months. I now use my credit card to help build my credit rating back up. I have a monzo flex card which allows interest free pay in 3 which i use for any larger purchases, otherwise i use it for smaller things (things that I typically already have the money to pay for anyway) then pay it off in full to avoid interest and get my credit rating back on track.

The only people I know who don't do this (other than for a one off emergency) are perpetually in debt. If I were single, i would never knowingly date someone with credit card debit.

I only use my credit card for the odd purchase here and there. It's not a 0% card so if I don't pay it off the interest, it is extortionate so I would rather just wait until the next payday if I'm struggling that particular month.

On my 0% card, I purposely get these cards for large purchases so I can spread the cost out over several months. So when using it this way, I purposely don't pay it off in full.

My husband uses his cc for all of his spend, to benefit from cashback. He pays this off each month too.

We always pay ours in full.

@SecretSoul, yes, you're probably right.

And it's very easy to say 'I never want to be in debt', when you haven't needed to be.

Hmm, I think there’s a judgemental tone with at least some of the posts. Not all, but some.

For sure some are just stating how they use it, but there are also comments like “anyone who doesn’t clear their balance is just bad with money” and lots of “we just refuse to get into debt, we don’t have things we can’t afford”….

I mean, that’s great. But sometimes if you can’t put food on the table, you might need to use a credit card. And you might not have the money to clear it all at the end of the month.

Likewise for Christmas. My teen DC don’t ask for anything expensive, ever, but there’s no way I’d let them wake up to no presents at all. I agree that’s a decision I’ve made, but I doubt anyone who insists they’d never buy things they can’t instantly pay for has ever been in a situation where they can’t feed their kids or buy them a couple of small Christmas gifts without using a credit card.

For context, we haven’t been on any kind of holiday for 11 years. We’re not spending money like water, as some of these posts suggest.

I agree credit cards aren’t the best way to borrow money but sometimes needs must. I resent the implication from some of the posts that anyone who uses credit cards without being able to instantly repay the balance is some kind of frivolous spendthrift.

I applaud anyone who uses credit cards astutely, they’re a great way to accumulate points, get consumer protection, and boost a credit score.

I have never had a credit card

This is just taken from Google but it’s probably reasonably accurate.
It is an average figure, so obviously if some people pay off every month, there will be many who don’t.
I think a lot of posters I have seen on here are very financially healthy and savvy.
Not everyone is. I was a bit of a plastic fantastic fan in my younger years, might as well have put my wages in a bin and set fire to them. You just buy a lot of crap that one day ends up as landfill.
I really used to love my labels and now I realise all you do is make the label owners wealthy. Buying a Victoria Beckham eye quartet doesn’t make me look like her - it just makes her richer.
There are always things which are better quality, and of course fashions change. But if I owned up to still wearing skinny jeans on here, it would be seen as a huge offence.
A lot of my friends my age (50’s) earn much more than me and are in much more debt. A few have had early access to private pensions and have spent the lot already on holidays, Botox, expensive stuff for their kids. So three decades of hard graft and the money has gone, gone, gone.
I do still use my card and I keep a low balance on it for credit rating but I don’t miss the days of lying awake worrying about debt.
It is also awful the APR on store and brand accounts (Very, Next etc) and the rates on borrowing sites advertised on ITV where the APR in the small print is close to 1500 per cent.

Never paid mine off in full.

If I could pay it off in full I wouldn't have seven one tbh.

Always pay it off in full. High earners now but we weren’t always. I won’t spend money I don’t have but equally have never been in a situation where we were scraping by. Use credit cards now for cash back and avios.

We do. Both when we were dirt poor and wealthier . Credit cards are almost never the best way to borrow money.

Every month without exception. My credit card is a rewards one, so it’s used like many people use their debit card. I simply don’t use it if I can’t pay the whole bill off at the end of the month.

I pay mine off in full by direct debit every month. I have never paid a single penny in credit card fees or interest.

That's a bit unfair - a lot of posters just stated how they use their credit cards.

Every month without fail. Was a big one this month (£5.5k) but that is unusual as I paid for a holiday in full. I have being my credit card off every month since I was at uni. My credit limit was only £350 back then though!

Always.

I put a load of expenses on mine every month and always clear it all off. The interest rate is punishing.

Pay off every month but I just use mine instead of my debit card for various reasons.

We don't go into debt either, nor are we high earners, but it is clear from many responses that there are posters who can afford to spend a lot of money.

Wow what an unbelievably smug set of answers. How do people think that credit card companies make money.

Anyway, 65% pay off their balances each month (though it was 60% in 2020). So 35% clearly don't. (that's data from the FCA).