Can I pay off my credit card balance to free up available credit?
Is it possible to pay off my balance more than once in a payment period in order to increase the amount I can spend in a payment period? Yes you can pay off the balance more than once even if its not due. This will get applied to outstanding and you will be able to spend again. If so, is there a reason not to do this? There is no harm. However note that it generally takes 2-3 days for the credit to be applied to the card. Hence factor this in before you make new purchases. I just got a credit card to start rebuilding my credit.  Spending close to you credit limit does not help much; compared to spending less than 10% of your credit limit.   So the sooner you get your limit on card increased the better. Banks only send your balance to credit bureaus once a month; usually a few days after your statement date.  Thus, as long as your usage is below 10% in that date range, you're ok. Regarding paying it off early: sure.  Every Sunday night, I pay our cards' charges from the previous week.  (The internet makes this too easy.) Is it possible to pay off my balance more than once in a payment period in order to increase the amount I can spend in a payment period? Yes, but you should only do that if you expect an expense that is larger than your limit allows. Then, provide an extra payment before your expense occurs since it will take longer for the issuer to apply it to the outstanding balance. For instance, when going on holiday you could deposit additional money to increase your balance temporarily. That said if your goal is to improve your credit score I would recommend using the card, staying within your limit and pay it off every month. The 2 largest factors going into calculating your credit score are: By paying off the balance each month you  After 6-9 months you can probably get a bigger limit, to improve your score. I wouldn't change to a different card or get a second one, as some issuers will run a check on your creditscore that lowers it temporarily. Also: you're entitled to a free credit report each year. I'd recommend asking for one every year so you can keep track on how your credit score improves. It also gives you the opportunity to check for mistakes on your report. Check here for more information: http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx The card you have is one where you had to deposit an amount equivelent to your card limit -a secured limit credit card.  Capital One is one if the primary cards of this type. The typical rules of credit card usage and building your credit, do not apply.  So, yes, you want to use the card as much as possible and pay off your balance as often as is necessary to keep your limit freed up. You can actually pay the full balance plus 10%, and gain a little extra limit. Use your card as much as possible and call them and ask for a limit increase every three months.  usually about 4 - 5 months in, they will increase your limit and do so without asking for a corresponding security deposit.  This is really cool, because it means you are becoming credit-worthy. I know so much about this because I applied for this card for my son and am helping him in his attempt to repair his credit.  His score increased by almost 200 points last year.
There are a number of ways to get out of debt. First, stop spending on that card. You could apply for a 0% APR credit card and if you qualify with a credit limit equal (or higher) than what you have now, then you could transfer the balance and start on paying that down. You could also work out a payment plan with Chase - they would rather have some of the money vs. none of it. But you need to reach out sooner rather than later to avoid having it sent to collections.  Since your cash flow is terrible, you could also pick up a second or third part time job - deliver pizzas, work at the mall, whatever, to help increase your cash flow and use that money to pay down your debts.  The Federal Trade Commission has some resources on how to cope with debt. "Stop spending on the CC with the revolving balance.   After the discussion below I feel I should clarify that what I am advocating is that you make your ""prepayment"" (though I disagree with calling it that) to the existing CC.  Then, rather than spending on that card, spend somewhere else so you won't accrue any interest related to your spending.  At the end of the month, send any excess to the account that has a balance.  This question is no different than I have $X of cash, should I let it sit in a savings account or should I send it to my CC balance?  Yes, 100%, you should send this $750 to your CC balance.  Then, stop spending on that CC and move your daily spending to cash or some other place that won't accrue interest at all. The first step to paying off debt is to stop adding to the balance that accrues interest.  It's not worth the energy to determine the change in the velocity of paydown by paying more frequently when you could simply spend on a separate card that doesn't accrue any interest because you pay the entire balance every month. The reason something like this may be advisable on a HELOC but not a CC is the interest rate.  A HELOC might run you 4% or 5% while your CC is probably closer to 17%.  In one situation your monthly interest is 0.4% and in the other your monthly interest is 1.4%.  The velocity of interest accrual at CC rates is just too high to justify ever putting regular spending on top of an existing revolving balance.  Additionally, I doubt there is anyone who is advocating for anyone to charge their HELOC for daily spending.  You would move daily spending to somewhere that isn't accruing interest no matter what.  You would use a HELOC to pay down your CC debt in a lump or make a large purchase in a lump.  Your morning coffee should never be spent in a way that will accrue interest immediately, ever. Stop spending on the CC(s) that are carrying a balance. (period) Generally credit cards have a grace period before interest is charged.  As long as a balance isn't carried from one statement period to the next you maintain your grace period.  If you spend $100 in the first month you have your card, say the period is January 1 to January 31, you'll get a statement saying you owe $100 for January and payment is due by Feb 28.  If you pay your $100 statement balance before February 28 you won't pay any interest, even if you charged an additional $500 on February 15; you'll simply get your February statement indicating your statement balance is $500 and payment is due by March 31, still no interest.  BUT.  If you pay $99 for January, leaving just a single dollar to roll over, you now owe interest on your entire average daily balance.  So now you'll receive your February statement indicating $501 + interest on approximately $233.14 of average daily balance ($1 carried + $500 charged on Feb 15) due by March 31.  That $1 you let roll over just cost you $3.26 in interest ($233.14 * 0.014).  AND.  Now that balance is continuing to accrue interest in the month of March until the day you make a payment.  It typically takes two consecutive months of payment-in-full before the grace period is restored. There is no sense in continuing to spend on a CC that is carrying a balance and accruing interest even if you intend to pay all of your current month spending entirely.  You can avoid 100% of the interest related to your regular spending by simply using a different card, and no rewards will beat the interest you're charged." Note: the question is tagged united kingdom, this is a UK focussed answer practices elsewhere may be different). A balance transfer moves your debt from one credit card to another. This can be a good way to get a debt onto a lower (often zero) interest rate.  There will usually be a transfer fee but with a good balance transfer deal the effective interest rate even after taking the fee into account can be very good and there are even some deals with 0% interest and no fee. Indeed if you keep on top of things credit cards are often the cheapest way to borrow. Normally a balance transfer is done to a new card that is applied for specifically for the purpose but sometimes it can make sense to transfer a balance to an existing card. However to take advantage of this you need discipline. You need to make absoloutely sure that you fully comply with the rules of the deal and in particular that you pay at least the minimum payment on time.  You should also be aware that the rate will usually jump up at the end of the interest free period, you could do another balance transfer but assuming you will be able to do that is risky as it depends on what market conditions and your credit rating look like at the time. Ideally you should have a plan for paying off the card before the interest free period expires. In general you should be aiming to pay down your debts. Living beyond your means is very bad and carrying debt long term should only be done if you have an extremely good reason. You should regard the balance transfer as a tool to help you clear your debts quicker, not as a way to avoid paying them. If you go on a spending spree after your balance transfer you will just have dug yourself deeper in debt. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards for more on the techniques and the current best cards. I am like you with not acknowledging balances in my accounts, so I pay my credit card early and often.  Much more than once a month.  With my banks bill pay, I can send money to the credit card for free and at any time.   I pay it every two weeks (when I get paid), and I will put other extra payments on there if I bought a large item.  It helps me keep my balances based in reality in Quicken. For example, I saved the cash for my trip, put the trip on my credit card, then paid it all off the day after I got home.  I used the card because I didn't want to carry the cash, I wanted the rewards cash back, I wanted the automatic protection on the car rental, and I couldn't pay for a hotel with cash. There are many good reasons to use credit cards, but only if you can avoid carrying a balance. "As far as I agree to everyone saying that ""you should stop borrowing"" & etc, I see a lot of sense of getting balance transfer cards if you are actually paying it off. Considering a scenario, you have a CC with balance of $5000 on each at roughly ~24% interest which results in ~$1200 interest per year. Your minimum due is ~$110, where you are paying $100 / mo for only interest and ~$10 / mo to cover your balance. If minimum is all you can pay with your current cash flow - yes, pleease do a balance transfer. Assuming your transfer cost is 3% and 0% interest for 21 months ( as many CCs do now ) your cost will be $150, but paying off $110 / month for 21 months you will pay off roughly $2000 off your balance, instead of ~$210 if you were paying only your minimum due. After 21 months - you'll have a balance of ~$3000 ( instead of $4800 ) and then you can repeat. If your cash flow gets better - please make as many more / bigger payments any time you can to reduce the balance and you'll pay off sooner." "One key point that other answers haven't covered is that many credit cards have a provision where if you pay it off every month, you get a grace period on the interest.  Interest doesn't accrue at all unless you rollover a non-zero balance.  But if you do, you pay interest on the average balance, not the rolled-over balance, for the entire month. You have to ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish with your credit history? Are you trying to maximize your ""buying power"" (really, leverage)?  Or are you trying to make sure that you get the best terms on a moderately sized loan (house mortgage, car note)? As JohnFx and losthorse already noted, it's in the banker's best interest to maximize the profit they make off of you.  Of course, that is not in your best interest. Keeping a credit card balance from month to month definitely feeds the greedy nature of the financing beast.  And makes them willing to take more risks, because the returns are also higher.  But those returns cost you. If you are planning to get sensible loans in the future, that you can comfortably afford, you won't need a maxed credit score.  You won't get the largest loan amounts, but because you are doing the sensible thing and making a large down payment, the risk is also very low and you'll find lenders willing to give you a low interest rate.  Because even though the reward is lower than the compulsive purchaser who pays an order of magnitude more in financing fees, the return/risk ratio is still very favorable to the bank. Don't play the game that maximizes their return.  That happens when you have a loan of maximum size, high interest rate, and struggle to make payments, end up missing a couple and paying late fees, or request forbearance which compounds the interest. Play to minimize risk." "Using the card but paying it off entirely at each billing cycle is the only ""Good"" way to use a credit card.  If you feel like you will be tempted to buy more than you can pay back don't use credit. As far as furnishing the apartment, the best thing to do would be to save and pay cash, but if you want to use credit the credit available at stores would be a far better deal than carrying it on a card." If you want to ensure that you stop paying interest, the best thing to do is to not use the card for a full billing cycle.  Calculating credit card interest with precision ahead of time is difficult, as how you use the card both in terms of how much and when is critical. First, before we talk about anything having to do with the credit score, we need the disclaimer that the exact credit score formulas are proprietary secrets that have not been revealed.  Therefore, all we have to go on are broad generalities that FICO has given us. That having been said, the credit card debt utilization portion of your score generally has at least two components: an overall utilization, and a per-card utilization. Your overall utilization is taken by adding up all your credit card debt and all your credit limits and dividing.  Using your numbers above, you are sitting at about 95%.  The per-card utilization is the individual utilization of each card.  Your five cards range in utilization from 69% to 100%. Paying one card over another has no affect on your overall utilization, but obviously will change the per-card utilization of the one you pay first.  So, to your question: Is it better on the credit score to have one low-util card and one high-util card, or to have two medium-util cards?  I haven't read anything that definitively answers this question. Here is my advice to you: The big problem you have is the debt, not the credit score.  Your credit card debt should be treated like an emergency that needs to be taken care of as quickly as you possibly can.  Instead of trying to optimize your credit score, you should be trying to minimize the number of days until all of your credit cards are completely paid off.  The credit score will take care of itself once you get your financial situation back on track. There is debate about the order in which one should pay off their debts, but the fact of the matter is that the order is not as significant as the intensity at which you pay them all off.  Dedicate yourself to getting rid of the debts as fast as possible, and it won't matter much which order they get paid off in. Finally, to answer your question, I recommend that you attack the card debt one at a time instead of trying to pay them off evenly.  Not because it will optimize your credit score, but because it will help you focus your debt-reduction energy as you work on resolving your debt emergency.  Fortunately, the credit utilization portion of the credit score has no history, so once you pay all of these off, the utilization portion of your score will get better immediately, and the path you took to get there will be irrelevant. After the credit cards are completely paid off, and you have resolved never to spend money that you don't have again, it is time to work on the student loans.... Credit cards are meant to be used so generally it doesn't hurt your credit score to use them.  To top it off you even get an interest grace period so you don't have to rush home and pay balances as soon as they're charged.   In general you accrue charges during your statement period, we'll call it September 1 through September 30.  The statement due date is something like 20 days after the close of the statement period, so we'll call it October 20.  As long as you habitually pay your entire statement balance by the due date you will never pay interest.  You charge your laptop on September 3, it shows up on your statement as $1,300, you pay $1,300 on October 18, you pay no interest. However, if you pay $1,000 on October 18 leaving a $300 balance to be carried in to the next statement period (a carried balance) you will pay interest.  Generally interest is calculated based on your average daily balance during the statement period, which is now be the October 1 to October 31 period.  You'll notice that you didn't pay anything until the October 18, that means the entire $1,300 will be included in your average daily balance up to the 18th of the month.  Add to that, anything else you charge on the card now will be included in your average daily balance for interest charge calculation purposes. The moral of the story is, use your card, and pay your entire statement balance before the due date.   Now how much will this impact your credit score?  It's tough to say.  Utilization is not a bad thing until it's a big number.  I've read that 70% utilization and over is really the point at which lenders will raise an eyebrow and under 30% is considered excellent. If you have one card and $1,300 is a significant portion of your available limit, then yes you should probably pay it down quickly.  Spend six or so months using the card and paying it, then call your bank and ask for a credit line increase. "Credit Cards typically charge interest on money you borrow from them.  They work in one of two ways. Most cards will not charge you any interest if you pay the balance in full each month.  You typically have around 25 days (the ""grace period"") to pay that off.  If that's the case, then you will use your credit card without any cost to yourself. However, if you do not pay it in full by that point, then you will owe 19.9% interest on the balance, typically from the day you charged the payment (so, retroactively).  You'll also immediately begin owing interest on anything else you charge - typically, even if you do then pay the next month the entire balance on time.  It's typically a ""daily"" rate, which means that the annual rate (APR) is divided into its daily rate (think the APR divided by 365 - though it's a bit different than that, since it's the rate which would be 19.9% annualized when you realize interest is paid on interest).   Say in your case it's 0.05% daily - that means, each day, 0.05% is added to your balance due.  If you charged $1000 on day one and never made a payment (but never had to - ignore penalties here), you'd owe $1199 at the end of the year, paying $199 interest (19.9*1000). Note that your interest is calculated on the daily balance, not on your actual credit limit - if you only charge $100, you'd owe $19.90 interest, not $199. Also note that this simplifies what they're actually doing.  They often use things like ""average daily balance"" calculations and such to work out actual interest charged; they tend to be similar to what I'm describing, but usually favor the bank a bit (or, are simpler to calculate). Finally: some credit cards do not have a grace period.  In the US, most do, but not all; in other countries it may be less common.  Some simply charge you interest from day one. As far as ""Standard Purchases"", that means buying services or goods.  Using your credit card for cash advances (i.e., receiving cash from an ATM), using those checks they mail you, or for cash-like purchases (for example, at a casino), are often under a different scheme; they may have the same rate, or a different rate.  They likely incur interest from the moment cash is produced (no grace period), and they may involve additional fees.  Never use cash advances unless you absolutely cannot avoid it." If we're including psychological considerations, then the question becomes much more complicated: will having a higher available credit increase the temptation to spend? Will eliminating 100% of a small debt provide more positive reinforcement than paying off 15% of a larger debt? Etc. If we're looking at the pure financial impact, the question is simpler. The only advantage I see to prioritizing the lower interest card is the float: when you buy something on a credit card, interest is often calculated for that purchase starting at the beginning of the next billing cycle, rather than immediately from the purchase date. I'm not clear on what policies credit card companies have on giving float for credit cards with a carried balance, so you should look into what your card's policy is.  Other than than, paying off the higher interest rate card is better than paying off the lower interest rate. On top of that, you should look into whether you qualify for any of the following options (presented from best to worst): "To expand on @JoeTaxpayer's answer, the devil is actually in the fine print. All  the ""credit-card checks"" that I have ever received in the mail explicitly says that the checks cannot be used to pay off  (or pay down) the balance on any other credit card issued by the same bank, whether the card is branded with the bank logo or is branded with a department-store or airline logo etc. The checks can be used to pay utilities, or even taxes, without paying the ""service fee"" that is charged for using a credit card for such payments. The payee is paid the face amount of the check, in contrast to charges on a credit card from a merchant who gets to collect only about 95%-98% of the amount on the  ""charge slip"". Generally speaking, balance transfer offers are a bad deal regardless   of whether you pay only the minimum amount due each month or whether   you pay each month's statement balance in full by the due date or   anything in between. The rest of this answer is an explanation in support of the above assertion. Feel free to TL;DR it if you like. If you make only the minimum payment due each month and some parts of the balance that you are carrying has different interest rates applicable than other parts, then your payment can be applied to any part of the balance at the bank's discretion. It need hardly be said that the bank invariably chooses to apply it to pay off the lowest-rate portion. By law (CARD Act of 2009), anything above the minimum payment due must be applied to pay off the highest-rate part (and then the next highest rate part, etc), but minimum payment or less is at the bank's discretion. As an illustration, suppose that you are not using your credit cards any more and are conscientiously paying down the balances due by making the minimum payment due each month. Suppose also that you have a balance of $1000 carrying 12% APR on Card A, and pay off the entire balance of $500 on Card B, transferring the amount at 0% APR to Card A for which you are billed a 2% fee. Your next minimum payment  will be likely be $35; computed as $10 (interest on $1000) + $10 transfer fee + $15 (1% of balance of $1500). If you make only the minimum payment due, that payment will go towards paying off the $500, and so for next month, your balance will be $1500 of which $1035 will be charged 1% interest, and $465 will be charged 0% interest.  In the months  that follow, the balance on which you owe 1% interest per month will grow and the 0% balance will shrink.  You have to pay more than the minimum amount due to reduce the amount that you owe. In this example, in the absence of the balance transfer, the minimum payment would have been $20 = $10 (interest on $1000 at 1% per month) + $10 (1% of balance) and would have left you with $990 due for next month.  To be at the same point with the balance transfer offer, you would need to pay $30 more than the minimum payment of $35 due. This extra $30 will pay off the interest and transfer fee ($20) and the rest will be applied to the $1000 balance to reduce it to $990. There would be no balance transfer fee in future months and so the extra that you need to pay will be a little bit smaller etc. If you avoid paying interest charges on credit cards by never taking any cash advances and by paying off the monthly balance  (consisting only of purchases made within the past month) in full by the due date, then the only way to avoid paying interest on the purchases made during the month of the balance transfer offer is to pay off that month's statement in full (including the balance just transferred over and the balance transfer fee) by the due date.  So, depending on when in the billing cycle the transfer occurs, you are getting a loan of the balance transfer amount for 25 to 55 days and being charged 2% or 3% for the privilege. If you are getting offers of 2% balance transfer fees instead of 3%, you are probably among those who pay their balances in full each month, and the bank is trying to tempt you into doing a balance transfer by offering a lower fee. (It is unlikely that they will make a no-transfer-fee offer.) They would prefer laughing all the way to themselves by collecting a 2% transfer fee from you (and possibly interest too if you fail to read the fine print) than having you decline such offers at 3% as being too expensive. Can you make a balance transfer offer work in your favor? Sure.  Don't make any purchases on the card in the month of the balance transfer or during the entire time that the 0% APR is being offered. In the month of the transfer, pay the minimum balance due plus the balance transfer fee. In succeeding months, pay the minimum balance due (typically 1% of the balance owed) each month. All of it will go to reducing the 0% APR balance because that is the only amount owing. Just before the 0% APR expires (anywhere from 6 to 24 months), pay off the remaining balance in full.  But remember that you are losing the use of this card for this whole period of time. Put it away in a locked trunk in the attic because using the card to make a purchase will mean paying interest on charges from the day they post, something that might be totally alien to you." "If you look around online and read about credit scores, you'll find all kinds of information about what you should do to maximize your credit score.  However, in my opinion, it just isn't worth rearranging your life just to try to achieve some arbitrary score.  If you pay your bills on time and are regularly using a credit card, your score will take care of itself. Yes, you can cut up the card you don't like and keep the credit card account open.  The bank may close your account at some point in the future because of a lack of activity, but if they do, don't worry about it.  You have other accounts that you are using.  Personally, I don't like having open credit accounts that I'm not using; I close accounts when I'm done with them.  I realize that it goes against everything that you will read, but my score is very high and my oldest open credit card account is 2 years old.  Don't let them scare you into credit activity that you don't want just to try to ""win"" at the credit score." If you are refering to company's financial reports and offerings, the required source for companies to disclose the information is the SGX website (www.sgx.com) under the Company Disclosure tab.  This includes annual statements for the last 5 years, prospectus for any shares/debentures/buy back/etc which is being offered, IPO offers and shareholders meetings. You may also find it useful to check the Research section of the SGX website where some of the public listed companies have voluntarily allowed independent research firms to monitor their company for a couple of years and produce a research report. If you are referring to filings under the Companies Act, these can be found at the Accounting and Regulatory Authority (ACRA) website (www.acra.gov.sg) and you can also purchase extracts of specific filings under the ACRA iShop. To understand the Singapore public listing system and the steps to public listing, you may find it useful to purchase one of the resource documents available for Singapore law, finance, tax and corporate secretaryship which are sold by CCH (www.cch.com.sg). Specifically for public listing the Singapore Annotated Listing Manual may help.  It is common practice for companies here to employ law firms and research firms to do the majority of this research instead of doing it themselves which I one of the reasons this information is online but perhaps not so visible. I hope I have understood your question correctly!