Budgeting/choosing a credit card

I would go to creditcards.com to compare 0% and cash back offers. I've used Citi Diamond Preferred for 0% APR, no cash back or miles, and I also have a Capital One card that had 0% when i opened it plus cash back.

This may be an unpopular opinion but please don't go into debt for your wedding. Even at 0% apr it's a bad habit to get into spending money you don't have. Ignore this if you're one of those people who can play down their balance to 0 every month and just cash out those rewards, but I am not one of those people. Have the wedding you can afford.

View Quoted Comment Nope, it’s not unpopular to spend smartly and to not go into debt over a wedding. I completely agree with everything you said.

I was thinking of this and was surprised to see a note about a 3% fee for paying with credit cards on one of my quotes! I don't know if it's really rare but it might be something to look into as that could cancel out any cash back savings!

I've only seen that once so other posters feel free to tell me if that's crazy and weird and no one else needs to worry about it though!

We put everything on our credit card which is not 0% (we don't have those in my country). But we pay it off at the end of the month and just keep stacking up the rewards. I have already redeemed $1100 in points towards wedding expenses and plan to redeem more.

Going into debt for a party is a really bad idea.

I would also not use any place that charged me a credit card processing fee. I believe that's actually illegal here. I use my credit cards because of the consumer protection laws. I don't need wedding insurance if my venue goes bankrupt, I can file a claim with my credit company to get the deposit back. I would never pay cash and forfeit this protection, let alone the points.

Agree with PP about the importance of paying the balance off every month. I used a Delta Amex for the last year to earn enough miles to use for my honeymoon flight (FH already had enough miles for his ticket). I paid it off in full every month to avoid getting hit with interest fees. Amex interest/late fees are killer, so I would only go this route if you definitely plan on paying off the balance every month.

Now that our tickets have been booked, I've switched to a TD Cash Credit Card. My checking account is with TD, so I'm not sure if that had something to do with how great the offer was, but I'll get a $200 cash back bonus by spending $500 in the first 90 days (with ongoing wedding deposits, that's easy), 3% cash back on dining, 2% cash back at grocery stores, 1% cash back on everything else, 0% APR the first 12 months and $0 annual fee. The cash back percentages and the $0 annual fee were most important to me. It's nice to have the security of 0% APR for the first year, but the intention is always to pay everything off in full.

View Quoted Comment Thanks. I agree with you. We dont plan to spend alot and It's not that we are buying things we can afford. I'm just trying to buget in a smart way so that the money we do spend will make us money as in cash back or miles. To me 0% means I can continue to save while I spend on bigger items and I am padded if there an issue or emergency (car repairs or something) and I can't pay in full ever time. I'm just trying to cover all the bases!

Chase Sapphire Preferred is widely regarded as the best travel points credit card, there's a user in here who used this card to pay for her HM to New Zealand!

Otherwise (or in combination with!) choose an airline that services your destination and get their branded card

If you do this, PLEASE pay it off each month, but I'm sure you already knew that

View Quoted Comment No, you're not crazy. The vendor(s) who charge you an extra 3% credit card usage fee is passing on the charges the credit card company charges them for using their services. We had a few of our vendors do that too and on those cases, we decide to write them a check instead of paying by credit card.

I can't give you a recommendation about cards with no with 0 APR for X number of months because I pay my balance at the end of each month. However, I can give you the card we decide on for our joint credit card. We had the same idea as you of having our money work for us and getting rewarded for travel rewards since we have big purchases for the wedding. We were looking at both the Chase Sapphire and Capital One Venture cards. We ended up choosing Capital One Venture credit card.

I have the AmEx Blue Cash Preferred, which is 0% APR for 15 months, I believe. It gives 6% cash back on groceries, 3% on gas, and 1% on everything else, so it's not great for wedding expenses, but if you'e looking for a 0% intro offer, it's a great card.

Otherwise, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the absolute best card. We use it for almost everything and we've gotten so many free flights, hotel rooms, etc. We're hoping to save up enough points to get free flights for our honeymoon.

Chase has great ones with no international fee, as well as ALASKA Visa; I travel frequently and don’t pay international fees for any expenses.
I don’t want to be so horrific about this that I’ll share, an acquaintance got a credit card for their honeymoon, sadly they split and it was hard for her to have him pay his portion, the bank couldn’t remove her as it was a join application, they had to close the account which she said affected her credit report... of course it doesn’t happen to everyone, I guess the lesson is to not get in so much debt for a wedding or honeymoon; there will be the day that you can enjoy your honeymoon paying cash and be debt free.

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Your emergency fund should be very separate from your wedding fund. Emergencies happen and you shouldn't be using your contingency fund to pay for your wedding.

I am not in the USA so don't have the same CC options, but you should plan to pay back what you put on your CC each month. That way you don't fall into the trap of waiting and spending the money on other things. If you don't have enough money for emergency car repairs, you shouldn't be using that fund to pay for your wedding or deferring paying wedding costs with a CC.

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This is exactly what I was thinking. They should be separate and if you may have to choose between car repairs and wedding expenses you may need to look at your finances again...

View Quoted Comment What I meant was that I should be able to do both and still be able to save. As I said as a padding not as an alternative. I'm trying to use credit to enhance my value by having it pay for for other things but I guess not everyone knows how to do that.

View Quoted Comment You're not crazy. My MUA has that stipulation. I guess cause she uses Square or something and doesn't want to cover the transaction fee herself. *Shrug*.