Cross referencing my post in #random https://frumfinance.slack.com/archives/C04FDN85LE4/p1701436117475299 Even with this major sale I don't want to lay all the money out up front. I just got a CC and I'd like to use it to pay for the Gemara set (as well as use the promotional cash back towards it) but I'd rather pay it off monthly over the first year to avoid any interest. Does doing that affect credit in any way or is it ok as long as each month I'm making at least the minimum payments?

0% APR for a year on purchases?

yup

It will count towards your credit utilization, which, depending on your available credit, may temporarily affect your credit until you pay it off. If you make the minimum payments (set up auto pay) there's no real affect on credit.

ok so just so I fully understand, it doesn't affect credit in terms of missing payments because I'm making the minimum payments every month. It would only affect credit in terms of utilization which is only temporary until it's fully paid off. Do I have it right?

Is this a business credit card? If yes, it wont affect your credit at all.

Yes you have it right. But just note to remember, the amount you pay each month is not the minimum, but the cost of the Gemara divided by how many months the APR is.

Is this a business credit card? If yes, it wont affect your credit at all.

No it's not a business card but that's good to know.

Yes you have it right. But just note to remember, the amount you pay each month is not the minimum, but the cost of the Gemara divided by how many months the APR is.

Correct, it's not the minimum, it'll be more than that. I just referenced the minimum since I was pretty sure I have to pay at least that to avoid credit being hit because if a late payment.

Or, since you seem to be fiscally responsible, pay the minimum and put the rest in a HYSA to be used for paying the cc at the expiration of the promo APR. Free interest. Probably not much, but a costless $100 is $100 lol

Thanks, that's a good idea. Does anyone know about how much the utilization would affect credit? Truth is right now I'd rather avoid any dips in credit so I'm leaning towards laying out the money and just budget and set up auto transfers to pay myself back each month. Not as ideal but may be worth it to avoid the credit hit, unless it's very insignificant.

Hard to say, but it definitely depends on your total available credit. If you have $5k total available and maintain a $2k balance, that may be significant. If you have $100k, that probably wouldn't. You can try it and check your score. If you don't like the results, then pay it off. I regularly maintain 5 figures of cc debt (never pay interest, of course) and have never had any issues applying for new cards, BH. A mortgage would be different because they care about DTI.

OK thanks, that's an extremely helpful explanation.