General Question

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Should I lower my credit limit on my credit card every month until it is paid off completely?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24959points) November 28th, 2019

I owe $109 in interest every month. Also could it be reestablished to current levels in case I want to sign up with online university classes though Athabasca University? I have been maxing out my credit cards every month for food.

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28 Answers

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Update Done. Every month I will lower my credit card limit by $300 until it goes to $0.

KNOWITALL's avatar

Why not just control your spending?
You want to INCREASE your credit not decrease, ifyou want better credit score.

I suppose it depends on your goal, which I’m unclear on.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@KNOWITALL I max out my credit every month. I don’t need a credit score. I will reduce my credit card to $300 a month to pay my smartphone bill and keep it paid off in whole every month.
Then I might cancel my cable and maybe my internet connection.

JLeslie's avatar

If you can control your spending don’t lower your limit.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@JLeslie I max out my limit every month. I prefer to save the $109 in interest charges, and put it towards savings.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@RedDeer So set yourself a limit and stick to it. It has nothing to do with the card limit, and your credit will be valuable as life progresses.
Plus if theres an emergency, you’ll be out of available credit, or funds at hand.

Why is your phone bill 300 a month? Mine is 40. Thats crazy!

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@KNOWITALL My phone bill is $47.27 a month. My internet is $150 and my cable is $65. I should have said utilities. No I can’t control my spending. I max out my available credit every month. $109 in interest charges is too much for me. Also I want a gold star from my social workers.

JLeslie's avatar

Sounds like lowering your limit was a good idea.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@RedDeer I dont get it. You keep saying you max it out. Just stop doing that.
If you have income, you should be living on that only, while the cards paid off. Are you just overspending?

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@KNOWITALL I keep ordering from Skip the Dishes. My workers want me to not have a credit card. They say that its a negative thing in my life. It doesn’t have to be permanent I will keep my limit to the $300 minimum and see how I do. Anything bad can be reversed if I am making a mistake.

KNOWITALL's avatar

Kinda sounds like your workers are right. You have to have self control.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@KNOWITALL Agreed. I will see how my life improves when I make my own food and not order from Amazon or Skip the Dishes; For a year or so. For a while to see if my life improves.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

There is a flaw in your logic, you blow through your 300 dollar limit and the phone bill comes due, Whoopsee no phone or taxi rides with groceries till next month !

You have to control your spending.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@Tropical_Willie I only pay $47.27 with my credit card. I have a stable fixed income. I will be fine. I have a high limit to start from and will take me 20 months to pay off my credit card. In 20 months. (If you do the math I owe $6,000). I might just keep or decide to cancel my credit card. I will try to get my credit card in a range to completely eliminate every month.
Edited

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Help me with math $109 per month interest and you only pay $47.27 to the bill ? ? ?

You’re paying less per month than your interest? It will take forever to pay it off.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@Tropical_Willie $47.27 for smartphone bill. Also $435 towards credit card every month and the $47.27 comes out of that. Other bills come out of my debit bill payment. When I figure out how to pay smartphone with debit card then I will be able to change to a different bank with a lower limit, lower than $300.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Okay back to you spend $300 on taxi rides and other things.

No more credit and phone bill goes belly up. You have to stop spending on things you don’t need that month; like emergency food stuffs . . . .

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SEKA's avatar

Lowering your limit will only give the credit card company the opportunity to charge you an “over the limit” fee every month which varies from company to company but is usually a substantial amount. You’d be better off paying down the balance on your card and then charging your school fees to the card.

Darth_Algar's avatar

You credit limit isn’t the problem and lowering that doesn’t really help you. That just addresses the symptoms, but not the cause. Your problem is that you do not control your spending. Until start doing that you’ll just keep ending up in financial trouble one way or another. A good credit limit can be an invaluable thing to have when you genuinely need it.

If you find that you just absolutely cannot responsibly manage your spending then, well, to be frank, you may need a financial custodian. But that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms…

johnpowell's avatar

This happened three hours ago

My mom gets social security and actually gets enough to pay everything and could be comfortable if she had some restraint. But it is the poor trap. You are so used to not having money you just blow it on garbage. Buy a 24 pack of Toilet Paper at walmart instead of a single roll for 2 dollars at 7–11. Spaghetti.. Not Chinese. Sacrifice to pay of your cards instead of blowing 109 in interest a month. Dude. $109 is a massive percentage of your income.

But I know the game. If my mom got 5K a month she would still be broke in a week. She has done it since I was 10 years old. Perhaps that is why I am poor, but never broke.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@johnp Kinda the same here. I feel like paying bills early and savings is a higher priority than almost anything I could buy. Its almost a challenge how little I can spend at this point.
My mom does the same as your mom, I think it teaches us young to be responsible.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@johnpowell

Kinda how it was with my mom. She grew up with nothing (growing up pretty much every penny they had went down her father’s throat), so as an adult she blew money constantly. A lot of it on things that looked nice, but had no practical value or use to us. Thing is, dad made pretty decent money (for the time and the area we lived it), but mom just went through it all. Dad’s job had him away for six months of of the year (a month at a time) so it was difficult for him to act as a check on mom’s spending.

EDIT: I mean, we never went without. We always had plenty to eat and good clothes on our backs. But, at the same time we lived under a constant cloud of “final notices”.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Ok Update I am getting my second internet cancelled tomorrow morning, and saving $100 a month plusreducing my cable to basic. I still will have high speed internet for Fluthering. Just wasn’t happy with my current isp speed. My speed will be 150–300 gb/s. And only cost $65 a month. Why do I have two internet isp? I am was impatient and swung to another provider with a better rate and speed before I canceled the first one.
Thanks everyone. I am doing fine. I will keep reducing my credit limit as I pay it down. Edited

KNOWITALL's avatar

@RedDeer GREAT JOB!!! Making lots of moves to help yourself thrive, thats amazing!!!
Are you fluthering on laptop or phone?

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@KNOWITALL Smartphone and personal computer.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Update I am still in debt. I am experimenting with different foods to find healthy, affordable, and delicious, combinations.

I am into blueberries and oatmeal and milk.

4kg frozen chicken wings, with Sweet Baby Rays plain bbq sauce. Instead of red meat. I make red potatoes and olive oil in the oven. I eat canned sliced carrots, fruit, and stew.

I’m looking into raw veganism.

I found out not to eat, apples, grapefruit, califlower, and cabbage. From my I.b.s. and medicine.

My internet is only though my new Android phone, with unlimited bandwidth. My computer is broken and I donated it to my computer repairman.

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