Reads like thinly veiled advertising for the services offered by the website this article comes from. I doubt it’s anywhere close to a representative sample.
“Pay later plans”? Other than credit cards, WTF are you talking about?
Yeah, I have a credit card that pays me back 5% cash on grocery store purchases. It would be stupid NOT to use it, then I pay the card off every pay day.
Groceries + free money.
They’re talking about installment plans through your credit card. You pay a fee to split a charge into monthly installments, usually of your choosing. By paying the monthly installment and the rest of your balance from other charges, you can avoid interest kicking in, even while you owe the full amount. The fee is usually a % of the purchase, like 3% or 1% per month or something.
It can make sense on a large one-time purchase, but it’s weird to do it for frequent purchases like groceries.
My last trip to the grocery store was $600.
I’d consider that a large purchase.
How many people for how long does that feed? Unless you want to starve on ramen noodles every day or eat only rice, I too don’t see how you’re getting away with less than $100/week per person.
That’s a month for two people.
What kind of psychopath only goes to the grocery store once a month?
🙋
Most groceries only have a shelf life of about a week.
So if you’re only going once a month, either you’re throwing a lot away, or just getting processed, shelf stable stuff that’s in general low on nutrients and overpriced.
90% of everyone else does too. **With credit cards. **
I mean responsible card owners pay their statement in full every month. It’s a great way to get purchase protection and cash back or reward miles. This is more like splitting payments over multiple months, and if you do that with a credit card APR you’re getting a terrible bargain.
I was told to carry a small balance to improve my credit and it works.
*Claim it’s a myth but I saw an improvement from paying off my balance every month. My broker told me to do it in advance of applying for a mortgage, I did try to fact check him but couldn’t find anything definitive one way or the other. When it came down to it though, my score improved by changing literally only that.
Anecdotally, I pay off my full balance every month and have an 830 credit score.
Common myth. You do not need to pay interest ever to have good credit. Your accounts should show activity, ie your balance on your statement should be non-zero, but you can pay off that entire balance (and thereby pay no interest) and still improve your score.
Lenders like clients who are slightly in debt, because they are viewed as more lucrative over the long term. Making timely payments is good. Making timely payments with a big interest component is even better, since that’s how creditors make their money.
Whomever is downvoting you has never worked the back end of the financial sector. Those double-digit APYs aren’t just for show. The primary goal of the business is to get you to pay them. That’s why people who do pay off their loans are constantly getting notes in the mail about how their max credit is increasing and personal loans are available and please, please, please borrow more money on a longer time scale.
