Is it a problem to have a negative balance on your CC?

[GoingUp]

I had a 260ish balance on my Circuit City Credit Card. When I went into the store to pay it off, I couldnt remember the exact balance so I just paid off $300 worth. Now I have a 42 dollars and change of a negative balance. Is this a bad thing to do with a CC? Should you not overpay your bills?

 

[UNCjigga]

They consider it an advance on next month's bill. If you do this often (as I have done in the past) they'll typically increase your credit line.

 

[CPA]

Not a bad thing, and if you don't charge anything for the next 3 months, they'll usually just send a refund check.

 

[trmiv]

I just had that when I paid off my credit card. I paid $79 too much. I could have charge $79 worth of stuff to get it off, but I just had them send me a check.

 

[RMSistight]

They could just leave that balance the way it is and deduct it when you purchase something else. If not that, then yes, a refund.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: CPA
Not a bad thing, and if you don't charge anything for the next 3 months, they'll usually just send a refund check.

Exactly. I had this happen once. I returned an item after I sent in my CC check. Then I stopped using the card (I may have accidently said 'ok' to a telemarketer when I was rudely awaken at 6 AM, so to prevent charges I stopped using that CC - to this day I'm not sure if that was interpreted by the telemarketer as a 'yes'). A month later, I got a check from the CC company.

 

[GoingUp]

its not even that I want the money back right now, its just that I was wondering if its bad.

I like to overpay my bills. My rent is paid through Feb. My wireless phone bill should have over 2+ months paid off in advance.

I do tend to have a problem with money, where when I get a lot of it, I blow it on frivolous items and things I dont need. To prevent this problem, I prepay my bills and other items months in advance.

I was just wondering if its bad to do this with a CC, thats all.

 

[ManSnake]

They will keep that $40 because they think you are a generious person and you donated that money out of good will

 

[IamElectro]

The only thing that stinks is they will keep your money for 90 days and not pay intrest back to you.

 

[ReiAyanami]

they will send bill collectors to collect all the rest of your money

 

[speg]

It's not bad, I do the same thing. Mostly casue I like have nice clean round numbers in my bank account. So I'll put in 143.24 just so I can have 2000.00 even in the bank. I think I might be wierd though.

 

[GoingUp]

Originally posted by: IamElectro
The only thing that stinks is they will keep your money for 90 days and not pay intrest back to you.

I'll end up charging more to the card.... its not a big deal

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Actually it's pretty dumb. It's essentially giving them an interest-free loan for the time that the negative balance exists. With $42 it's not that big a deal, but overpaying credit cards is not something you want to make a habit of. They charge you 10-20% to borrow their money, why would you let them borrow yours at 0%?

 

[thomsbrain]

I purposely did that once to "extend" my credit so I could buy something expensive that wouldn't fit on my card ordinarily.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Actually it's pretty dumb. It's essentially giving them an interest-free loan for the time that the negative balance exists. With $42 it's not that big a deal, but overpaying credit cards is not something you want to make a habit of. They charge you 10-20% to borrow their money, why would you let them borrow yours at 0%?

Although that argument tends to carry a lot less weight nowadays with normal passbook account interest rates hovering at 2% and below.