Please talk to me about regular spending on credit card

[LongStoryLong]

Morning everyone, just looking for some advice on putting all our spending on a credit card and paying it off monthly - how to do it, any pitfalls rewards schemes you like.

Our finances are….bumpy at the moment. We get paid at different times, our outgoings are from different accounts (mine, his, joint) and at different times. The irony is, we’re very solvent and have lots of savings, very lucky, but our money is never in the right place at the right time, and I frequently feel panicky and unstable. Also, we’re going to be doing a bit building project this year, and I want to make those payments work for us; and there are some bigger trips we’d like to make over the next few years; all in all, I thought transferring all our regular spending to a rewards-based credit card would be a good idea.

my questions: is this a good idea? Is it easy to budget? Any experiences you can share? What cards do you use? And particularly: how do you go about transferring all bills and regular spending to the card?

Any advice would help, honestly- something needs to change around here!

But you can set up recurring payments on your cc. But it is a faff, and I’m not going to do it.

I do this, have done it for years.

Every purchase day to day is made on one credit card. It's an Am Ex card that I earn British airways points for spending, so I have that bonus. But I also prefer credit card spending, first, because my money stays in my current account for longer, and second, I find it easy to see exactly how much I've spent in a month because I get one bill at the end. I have a direct debit set up to pay the bill in full each month so I don't need to worry about remembering.

For larger purchases - holidays or building works etc, I put these on another Mastercard that I earn cash back on, so I get a little bonus back there. I always pay that off in full too - so I still save in advance for what I'm buying but buy it on the credit card and pay off at the end of the month. If I didn't pay off in full it would accrue interest which would make the cash back pointless.

We've done this for years although now do a combination of cashback credit card (Santander 123) and Chase rewards (1% cashback). Use either Chase or Halifax Clarity for all foreign spending. All credit cards are cleared in full by direct debit. We don't make big money from it tbh but every little helps! Chase rewards I move straight into the savings account. Santander just reduces the balance payable next month.

I am paid a fixed monthly salary, DP variable weekly. We worked out our fixed expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurance etc) for a year and we each contribute equal shares to a bills account when we get paid. I think we maybe paid in extra initially to build up a buffer but it's basically left to run itself now & we review every 6 months or so. I keep debating moving bills to a rewards type account but not got round to it yet...

Day to day spending we transfer a fixed amount to the Chase account each payday and any excess goes to the savings accounts. We pay the credit cards from this account. Also use a Tesco credit card for fuel or if shopping in Tesco & use the clubcard vouchers for annual railcard & restaurant vouchers.

I use YNAB alongside and always have an eye on the balance - any unusual spending (holidays, big household purchases etc) we would move from savings pots to cover.

This is so useful, I’m really grateful. I’m also looking at YNAB to keep track of outgoings. I had already started to do that in a very analogue way, but I can see that there are much more efficient ways to keep track of spending and I need to establish one.

We do nearly all spend on credit card and pay it off. We do this because

a) I get 1% cashback in most purchases
b) better consumer protection rights by using credit cards

But we have no issues re paying it off.

I get paid on 24th of every month and my partner on the last day. Our credit card direct debit comes out on 1st as does all of our other bills - mortgage, council tax, utilities etc. we pay the full credit card amount every month so there is never any interest to pay.
The bill generates earlier in the month (about 3 weeks earlier) so we can see the total amount which will be due and debited from our account.

We use the credit card for all day to day spending like food shopping, days out etc but as other posters have said you can't usually use it for council tax etc.
We use a NatWest rewards card but I'm interested to see what ones others use as well because I'm sure it's not the best.

I wouldn't suggest this if your budget is tight and being paid at different times may be problematic. We do a mix of credit card and debit card spending. Groceries, fuel, meals out and general shopping goes on debit cards. Bigger spends like furniture, sometimes flights or hotels, unusual bigger spends like new white goods etc go on credit cards. I then move the money over to our Starljng credit card space savings pot and all credit card repayments come from there. We get vouchers as rewards and a bit of time to move money around or save for the bill. We pay them off in full each month.

I’ve put all my day to day expenses on a credit card and paid it off at the end of the month via dd for over 2 decades.

As per PP, I do this for credit card reward points and also for buyer protection.

Using my debit card for any purchases makes me incredibly nervous now 😂.

We have done this for years. Get a credit card that gives rewards and set up a direct debit to pay in full every month. Easy to set up, and easy to monitor with apps nowadays.

I spent an afternoon calling all my bills and got them changed to 1st of the month. They all come out of a joint account. Say for example, it's 3k a month, we both transfer enough to cover that 3k before the 1st of every month.