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

[PoliteCyanViewer]

I always hear advice about clearing your balance each month to avoid interest but how many people actually do it? With the cost of living, unexpected expenses, and temptations everywhere, is it realistic? Do you pay yours off in full or do you carry a balance?

Always. Have never paid a penny of interest.

i am not a particularly high earner. I just don’t spend what I don’t have.

I have an M&S credit card because I get vouchers when I spend & pay it off. I don’t clear it to zero, but I do track my spending on it and make sure no transactions remain unpaid long enough to incur interest. I don’t let the balance get above about £250. I hate paying interest so I try to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Nope, minimum wage, 25 hours a week. I go without instead of being in debt.

We do. But we only use it for high value things like holidays. We would always make sure we have saved for them before we use the cc to pay for them.

We aren't high earners, we just live within our means.
If we can't afford it, we don't have it.

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).

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.

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

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

Always.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

Never paid mine off in full.

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

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.

I have never had a credit card

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.

@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.

We always pay ours in full.

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.

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 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.