How much should I pay each month on my credit card accounts?

How much should I pay each month on my credit card accounts?

Janet Bodnar (Deputy Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance) gives expert video advice on: Should I take advantage of low rate offers and transfer my balances?; How many credit cards should I have? and more...

Ideally you should pay your credit card accounts in full every month. Your credit card really should be a convenience for you. Nowadays, not only is it a convenience, because you don't have to carry cash with you, you can also build up frequent flier miles, cashback points or that sort of thing. So using your credit card can really be a good thing for you over the course of a month. But you don't want to get in over your head. You don't want to ever spend any more than you can pay off at the end of the month. So your ideal should always be to never exceed that amount, to be able to pay in full every month. You're never going to owe any interest, and you're going to get all those rewards in return.