I was reading an article that said you should stay within 40-50% of you available credit on a credit card (Meaning if you have $10,000 available, don't exceed a $5,000 balance). Why? Your credit score can take a serious nosedive of 100 points or more. This number itself (total revolving credit) makes up 30% of your credit score.

DH and I have put away all our cedit cards (yes there are a few) but only 1 has a balance of more than 50% on it and we are working it down. I am trying to swear off Credit cards for future use, but know that if I do need to use one, I only count 50% of the total available as what is available to me.

__________________

We are working on our credit cards. Ours were down pretty low but this past year and all the crazy things that happened, I admit, we ran some of them up a bit.

I was actually shocked to notice that my credit limit has gone up to $7000, from like $1000 when I got the card. Those credit card companies sure do want you to spend spend spend.

We use ours for everything and pay them off in full each month.

We have stopped charging and pay everything cash now. We are trying to pay down the debt we owe on our cards. I think we must average above 50%, but not maxed out. Some have low balances with high available and some have high balances with low available. I think we should consolidate... but not sure

__________________

We're below 50%. We have a couple with balances, but we're working on those. The gas card is usually paid off every month.

We have -0- credit card debt. We originally planned to cut them up but are using them for online purchases to be in full each month and/or an emergency.

We use our credit cards for just about everything and pay them off each month in full. It keeps our money in our account for as long as possible earning us interest, and is very convenient. By paying our balance in full each month, it's like a mini-loan at 0% interest. I'm sure the credit card companies hate us! LOL

But, you have to be very in control of your finances to try this. I couldn't have done this when younger.

This is us too. We use credit cards that have rewards so we get rebate checks, etc. as well.

__________________
SAHM of 4

August food budget (groceries/take-out): $500.00/$75.00
Total spent: $238.97/$14.12

July budget/spent: $500.00/$650.00

Whatever is charged is paid off when the bill comes. However, with that being said, I'm trying to limit my credit card use simply because once I reviewed our bills for the last 6 months, I could see how easy it was becoming for to "just put it on the card." Well, the bill would come, and then I'd have to transfer money from the savings to the checking to pay if off, which as you can imagine didn't sit well with my husband.

__________________
~*~ Angie~*~
Wife to Brian
SAHM to Sarah & Andy 2/11/2000