The 60-Day Interest-Free Loan sitting in your Wallet

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Here’s another dirty trick good ol’ Dad taught me.

Ever wanted to wait 60 days to pay for something you purchase today?  Maybe you have a commission check, periodic bonus, or other anticipated revenue event – And you would like to purchase something today without bouncing checks or taking out a ’90 days same as cash’ consumer loan?

It’s simple- Buy something at the beginning of your credit card billing cycle.

If you know the start date of your credit cards’ billing cycle and purchase an item at the very start of a credit card billing cycle,  you have 60 days to pay for it.  You have 30 days to complete the billing cycle,  then another 30  days of ‘grace period’ to pay the bill.

Example:  You billing cycle starts on the first of every month.  You purchase something on the 1st of July.  The bill closes on the 31st of July and you have until the 31st of August to make the payment – It’s a 60-day interest-free loan courtesy of your credit card issuer (actually 61 days in this case)!

You can leverage this flexibility when you have more than one credit card with different billing cycle start dates –  For example, you can choose to have one card start the billing cycle on the 1st of each month and have a different card that starts on the 16th.  You could even set up a credit card that starts on the 24th of each month so you can capture Black Friday deals and not pay for them until the end of January – Interest Free!

I’ve even used this tactic to buy gifts or high-ticket items at Costco (that’s INSIDE a Costco, not online at Costco.com) on a  Visa  card.  You do this by purchasing a Costco Cash card online (or in-store) and loading or re-loading the Costco Cash card online using Visa or MasterCard (This trick won’t be as relevant when Costco shifts to accepting Visa in 2016, but if your favorite rewards card is MasterCard then this tactic still works).

CAUTION – The above tactic for 60-days interest-free is not interest-free FOREVER.  I’m assuming you’re already paying off your credit card bills in full at the end of each cycle.  If you’re carrying a credit card balance then my simple advice is to cut them up and pay them off ASAP – You’re giving the credit card issuer a 20% rate of return on their investment (at your expense).  It’s also like paying an additional 20 cents for every dollar you charge at the store.

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