Poll: Are current credit card charges debt?

[racy]

It's an investment

... I don't actually "owe" the money to the CC until the due date. Since I pay it off by that date (if not a little before), then I not only don't owe the money, but in most cases I'll be rewarded for using the card. ....

Yep, using the card and getting cash back is an investment.

 

[audreyh1]

Right but does it hurt your credit score?

who knows?

 

[audreyh1]

We pay our's off as soon as the statement is cutoff. Why wait? Interest is so low it really doesn't make any difference and I like to clear things up ASAP. I know some people who pay them every day. That seems a little excessive but would certainly keep things in control.

It's a cash flow thing. Yep - 1% is little. But if I transfer the funds earlier to pay as soon as I receive the bill, I lose out almost a month's worth of interest, and it does add up over the long run. We often have high credit card bills - especially after traveling. I like waiting until the next month to pay it, and it give me time to adjust the amounts for the next month's auto transfer.

 

[CRLLS]

As many here, I pay the CC bill in full every month along with the electric and gas bills. Since my monthly CC bill is <0.1% of my net worth, I don't consider it as "debt" in any of my financial calculations other than estimating future annual expenses. I can't imagine what else those numbers would be used for that required better than 3 significant digits of accuracy. It really doesn't matter if the CC is used for 1, 10 or 50% of my monthly expenses. Yes it is technically debt, as are accrued real estate taxes and many other day to day recurring expenses.