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What Is the Best Way to Pay Your Credit Card Bill?

6 min read

Last Updated: March 14, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

You can usually set reminders or alerts with your credit card issuer for activity in your account, such as payment due date reminders.
You might be able to use online banking services to make your credit card payment electronically.
Pay at least the “minimum amount due” by the due date to avoid late fees and a penalty interest rate.

Typically, credit card payments are due on the same day every month. Even so, it can still be easy to forget. Missing a credit card payment, or paying late, may impact your credit score, and affect your overall financial health due to late fees and penalty interest rates.

If you’ve been late with credit card payments, you might like some of the online tools from your credit card issuer, including Discover. These tools can help make payments easier and help you make your payments on time.

How to manage credit card payments

Take advantage of free alerts

Most credit card issuers provide free email or text message alerts. You’ll need to sign up (or opt in) for them. Commonly available alerts can remind you of payment due dates, how much your payment is, and much more.

With Discover, you can also set up alerts or reminders to help you track your spending, protect your account, and manage your rewards and offers.

Learn More

Pay electronically

Paying your credit card bill online bypasses the stamp and envelope and gets your payment quickly to your credit card company. Many card issuers let you make automatic payments through your bank account each month, so you don’t have to worry you’ll forget a payment. However, there are pros and cons to consider before signing up for an automatic payment service.

Pro: You don’t have to remember your payment due date.
Pro: Avoid owing a late fee.
Pro: Can help minimize accruing interest.
Con: You risk overdrawing your bank account.
Con: You may be less aware of your spending habits.

If you use automatic payments, it’s a good idea to check your credit card statement regularly. That way, you can catch any incorrect information or fraudulent charges.

Pay on the same day every month

According to the Credit CARD Act of 2009, credit card bills must be due on the same date each month, making these dates predictable. This helps consumers avoid missing any payments. Your credit card company won’t typically report your balance to the credit bureau until a certain point in your billing cycle. Paying early could help you avoid interest and protect your credit score.

If you pay late, you may get a costly late fee and your credit score could go down. But if you do accidentally pay late, you may be able to contact your credit card issuer and ask to have your first late charge waived as a courtesy.

Pay more than the minimum

One way to manage your credit card account is to avoid interest charges by paying each month’s statement balance in full and on time. If you get into this habit and pay on time every month, you shouldn’t worry about late fees.

If you carry a balance occasionally, how much you pay is very important. When you can’t pay your balance in full, paying as much as possible will minimize the interest charges applied to your account. At the very least, pay the “minimum amount due”. If you pay below the minimum payment, you’ll still be responsible for late fees and might incur a penalty interest rate.

Paying your credit card balance in full

Credit cards allow members to spend money now and pay it off later. For some, this means carrying a balance from month to month and usually paying interest. But paying your card balance in full is ideal, especially in the following cases.

If the interest rate (APR) is high

Your credit card interest or APR (annual percentage rate) is set by your credit card company based on factors like your credit score.

Most credit card issuers offer an interest-free grace period. This is when you pay your statement balance in full by the due date every month and don’t take a cash advance or do a balance transfer. But if you take a cash advance, do a balance transfer, or don’t pay your statement balance in full, you’ll immediately carry a balance.

In this case, you’ll start accruing daily interest on the balance you carry and any new transactions or fees. And if you have a high APR, daily interest charges can make it harder to pay down your debt.

That said, you may be able to transfer your balance to a credit card offering a low intro APR on balance transfers and/or purchases for a limited time. Transferring a balance to a card that offers 0% intro APR gives you time to pay down debt without paying interest. Note that you’ll lose your grace period and begin accruing daily interest if you don’t pay your transfer and purchase balances off before the introductory period ends.

Did you know?

Discover has balance transfer credit card offers for eligible individuals. This may help you combine your credit card debt on one card and may save you money on credit card interest.

Learn More

If your promotional APR period is ending

If you’ve been using a credit card with a promotional APR that’s about to end, you may want to consider paying off the balance in full. It can be easy to spend on a promotional 0% APR card, forgetting that regular interest will apply once the promotion ends. You can avoid this problem by reminding yourself when the regular APR kicks in.

For example, when you receive the card, you could set a calendar reminder for a few weeks or more before the interest-free period ends. This can give your future self a heads-up to address the balance.

A loan application

Are you applying for a large loan, like a mortgage, car, or personal loan? Lenders will check your credit report and credit score as part of the approval process. One important number is your credit utilization ratio, which is how much of your available credit you’re using across all your revolving credit accounts. This tells the lender if you have the ability to pay back new debt. If your credit utilization ratio is high, meaning you use a lot of your available credit, a lender may view you as less reliable.

While there's no specific number for where your credit utilization ratio should be, keeping it low is a good idea. If you’re in a situation where your ratio will be under review (like applying for new credit), try to use as little of your credit limit as possible.