Nothing? Everything then pay if off every month? Something in between?
I just got a new credit card with pretty good rewards, so I'd like to figure out ways to get the most out of the rewards. I wish our daycare took credit cards! I assume you can't put a mortgage or car payment on a credit card?
What do you charge to credit cards?
pineapple / 12802 posts
I use credit for everything and treat it like a debit card. I do not spend money on it that I do not physically have in my bank account and I pay it off every month.
ETA: and yea, our important bills are automatic withdrawals from our chequeing account.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
Everything! If the store/ service accepts CC I will use it.
DD/ Starbucks
Groceries
USPS
Restaurants
Retailers
Insurance, cable, pest control
Hair & nails
Highway tolls
I used to use my debit card for many of these transactions, but we get points & perks using the CC. Since these are our/ my regular household expenditures the card is paid off every month.
pomegranate / 3113 posts
Everything I can, and pay it off each month. Like you said, though, our biggest monthly expenses like daycare and mortgage have to be paid by check or ACH transfer, not CC.
Just to add onto that, I feel much safer using a CC for most purchases than a debit card because the risk of financial loss if the card is lost or stolen is way less (i.e. thief can't drain your account) and they have better purchase protections. That plus rewards makes it about-brainier for me to use CCs for most everything.
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
@.twist.: I think that's what we'll do. Before we started using YNAB I was always kind of scared to do it this way because I worried I wouldn't be able to keep everything straight and I'd end up charging more than we had or more than I wanted to, but now with YNAB it's so easy!
coffee bean / 33 posts
I put everything on our credit card except our mortgage and pay it off every month. I also treat it like a debit card. We get pretty good travel rewards from it which is nice because we're really only spending what we would even if we didn't have a credit card.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
I use credit cards as much as possible. We pay off the statement balance every month. Our daycare accepts credit cards so that's really nice!
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
@PurplePeony: If I could charge daycare and our mortgage I'd have soooo many rewards! Oh well.
persimmon / 1165 posts
Everything and pay it off weekly. The only bill we can pay with a credit card is our Comcast bill, but that adds up! We've been using our Capital One Venture for a little over a year and have already gotten 2 free airline tickets.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
Everything. We pay them off each Friday. I pretend like I'm using a debit card and have my budget set up the same as it was before we switched to credit cards.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I charge everything, I barely even use my debit card any more and I never carry cash.
coffee bean / 33 posts
@sheskrafty: We have Capital One Venture as well. It's a great card! 
grapefruit / 4418 posts
Everything! So much safer than a debit card. I transfer money from debit to the card each week and then reconcile at the end of the month to pay it in full.
honeydew / 7091 posts
Everything that we can! We pay it off every month, regardless of the total. We just paid my and K's hospital delivery bills and DH's LASIK surgery, so we're getting awesome rewards this month! We also put all our new windows and siding on the CC (over several months since our limit isn't *that* high) and got over $300 in rewards! 
Man, I WISH I could pay mortgage and daycare - maybe I should investigate... I do pay phone, internet and water bill with the CC
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
@sheskrafty: @TravelBee: That's the one I got 
@swurlygurl: I do have a good amount of bills I can put on it, and gas and groceries will definitely add up, too!
bananas / 9899 posts
Everything, and we pay it off every month. I only use debit if I have to, and I never have cash on me.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@lawbee11: we recently opened up the capital one venture too!! is it because of that other thread shopaholic started? everyone kept raving about it, so we looked into it and thought it'd be a great way to rack up flights bc we do want to travel more with the kids now that they're getting older!
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
@Mrs. High Heels: Yes! We have a United card through Chase but honestly the rewards kinda suck and there are so many blackout dates or dates where they charge you a million miles for one flight that it's not even worth it. I like that with the Venture it's 2 miles per dollar and you can use them on any airline.
ETA: Did they have the 40,000 bonus miles when you signed up? That was another thing that sold us...we'll easily get those miles just charging our normal monthly expenses.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Everything I can. And then pay off in full each month to rack up the rewards. So far the only things we can’t charge are:
Mortgage (we pay our taxes and insurance separately from our mortgage (i.e., not escrowed) and pay those via credit card to our town, but the mortgage itself cannot be paid via credit card)
Daycare
Student loans
Man of man do I wish we could charge mortgage and daycare!!!!!
clementine / 806 posts
our daycare accepts credit cards, so that's nice. But I also put just about everything on there. My debit card is rarely used.
pomelo / 5524 posts
Everything and pay it off each month here too. We have some nice rewards on our Discovercards, so they're used all the time.
olive / 72 posts
I frequent a few local businesses that are cash only, but other than that, I charge literally everything. In order to maximize our rewards, I found a card that gives double points on groceries and gas, and triple points on flights, which are our three biggest spending categories (long ass commute and faraway families, what can you do...).
I am a person who has struggled with (and paid off) a large sum of credit card debt in the past, but I have found that by having an AmEx card that charges major penalties if not paid off every month, the temptation to let a balance carry is not there. I do also have a Visa that I use anywhere that doesn't take AmEx, but that bill rarely tops a few hundred per month.
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
Nothing. We don't have any. We use mostly cash and occasionally use our debit cards. We pay all of our bills online.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
Everything because the rewards are so good. We pay them off monthly.
watermelon / 14467 posts
Chiropractor and Milk delivery. I have a hotel on there from the spring, but I'm working on paying it off and hopefully will have it paid off in the next two months.
grape / 89 posts
Everything I possibly can, including car payments and utilities. We mostly use the Venture card too and have been pretty happy with the rewards. I pay in full weekly. We've also gotten the AA bonus credit cards and flew to Europe with the bonus miles. We try to maximize rewards and use things like ebates, etc. whenever possible for online purchases or bookings. Mortgage and student loans are the only thing that doesn't get charged!
nectarine / 2465 posts
Everything except for bills and then pay it off. Lose all those points
papaya / 10343 posts
Every single thing I can! We pay it off every month but we have a cash back card and I'm going to use our $720 cash back to buy Christmas gifts this year
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Everything we can....we have a shitload of points now and we cash them in for gift cards to go out to eat. We pay it off every month, so it's just like paying cash, in bulk, to us.
pineapple / 12566 posts
Everything that we possibly can. We pay it off every month though.
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