 TITLE: Can I Pay for Health Insurance With a Credit Card? CONTENT: How Can Paying for Health Insurance With a Credit Card Affect Credit?\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\nPaying for health insurance with a credit card can impact your credit depending on how you manage your credit cards. Here's how.\n*   **Credit utilization**: The amount of available revolving credit you use compared with your total credit limits makes up 30% of your FICO® Score☉ , the credit score most widely used by lenders. Your credit utilization ratio is calculated by adding up the balances across all your cards and dividing it by your total credit limits. Keeping this figure below 30% for each credit card and overall can help you maintain a good or excellent credit score.  \n    To illustrate, if you have $2,000 in available credit on a card and your current balance is $500, your credit utilization is 25%. If you decide to pay your $250 health insurance premium on the same card, it will bring the balance to $750 and raise your utilization to 37.5%. In this case, you'd want to avoid using your credit card or pay off the premium payment immediately to keep credit utilization low.\n*   **Payment history**: This is the most significant component of your FICO® Score, accounting for 35% of your score. If you make timely credit card payments each month and never miss a payment, your positive payment history will help improve your credit score. But if you miss a payment and it becomes 30 days or more past due, you may receive a negative mark on your credit report and your score will suffer. If you fear you may fall behind on credit card payments, avoid using a card to pay health insurance so you don't risk damaging your credit.\nStay on Top of Your Credit Health\n---------------------------------\nMany health care insurance providers allow subscribers to cover premiums with credit cards. While this may be a convenient and even valuable option, be sure you'll be able to pay off your premiums every month before moving forward.\nEven if you don't use a credit card to pay your health insurance, staying on top of your credit is important. Experian makes it easy to keep tabs on your credit report and FICO® Score with free credit monitoring, which also provides alerts when there are any changes to your report. END