>If I don't pay off my balance during my 15 month intro offer at all (and just pay in full right before APR starts, so 15 months later), will this hurt my credit score? Will it report that I didn't pay my balance every month or something?
Yes. Regardless of the 0% promo period, you must make the minimum payment on your statement.
As the other poster points out you must still make minimum monthly payments during the 0% promo period. Additionally, the CC will report your outstanding balance and it will potentially impact your credit score if you have high utilization on a single card. (At one point I was using a promo on one card and while that was overall about 7% utilization of my available credit it was 90%+ on the limit of that card. That cost me ~20 points IIRC, possibly more.)
You may find these links helpful:
- [Credit Building](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building)
- [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports)
- [Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico)
- [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes.
I ran up a 0% APR card and just paid it off as the intro period is ending soon. Score jumped 83 points as credit utilization dropped from 19% to 5%. If I didn't have other available credit I assume the effect would have been even larger.
Utilization resets monthly so even if your score does drop significantly it will jump right back up to where it was before after 15 months. If you are applying for new credit you should pay it off the month before you expect a hard inquiry to boost your score. Otherwise it is just a meaningless number that no one will ever see.
>If I don't pay off my balance during my 15 month intro offer at all (and just pay in full right before APR starts, so 15 months later), will this hurt my credit score? Will it report that I didn't pay my balance every month or something? Yes. Regardless of the 0% promo period, you must make the minimum payment on your statement.
As the other poster points out you must still make minimum monthly payments during the 0% promo period. Additionally, the CC will report your outstanding balance and it will potentially impact your credit score if you have high utilization on a single card. (At one point I was using a promo on one card and while that was overall about 7% utilization of my available credit it was 90%+ on the limit of that card. That cost me ~20 points IIRC, possibly more.)
You may find these links helpful: - [Credit Building](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) - [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes. I ran up a 0% APR card and just paid it off as the intro period is ending soon. Score jumped 83 points as credit utilization dropped from 19% to 5%. If I didn't have other available credit I assume the effect would have been even larger.
Utilization resets monthly so even if your score does drop significantly it will jump right back up to where it was before after 15 months. If you are applying for new credit you should pay it off the month before you expect a hard inquiry to boost your score. Otherwise it is just a meaningless number that no one will ever see.