Business

Full Payment vs. Partial Payments: Which is Best For Your Credit Score?

Published

2 years ago

April 16, 2022

When it comes to paying off your credit card, there are two leading schools of thought: full payment and partial payment. Both have pros and cons, but which is best for your credit score?

Method 1: Paying your balance off in full every month

Pros:

You won’t accrue debt. If your balances are $0 at the close of every statement, you’ll never accrue interest.
You’ll improve your credit score—the less outstanding debt you have, the higher your credit utilization rate. You may want to consider a popular method like using a personal loan to pay off debt and this includes credit card debt.
You’ll be less likely to default on your debt. Debt creates a slippery slope that quickly gets people in over their heads and unable to pay back what they owe. Since you’ll never carry a balance, your chances of defaulting are slim.

Cons:

It can be challenging to come up with the money to make a full payment, especially if you’ve spent more than you made throughout the month.
You may not be able to afford all of your bills if you put all your money towards paying off your credit card in full. If you run into this problem, you’ll need to cut expenses or alter your budget to ensure you have enough money to cover your debt and other necessities.

Method 2: Paying the minimum or making partial payments

Pros:

You’ll need less money every month to make payments on time. There are multiple ways you can use partial payments as a debt payoff strategy.
Consider popular methods for paying off debt in increments to see which is right for your situation. If you’re on a tight budget, this is a better strategy to take than avoiding making payments.
You can put money towards emergency savings while also paying your bills. Emergency funds ensure cash is available when you need it, which can help you avoid going into debt in the future.

Cons:

You’ll accrue interest on your outstanding balances.
Minimum payments are often eaten up by the interest on any balance you carry over, which can be demotivating if you’re trying to get out of debt.
It will take you a long time to become debt-free. The longer you carry a balance, the more interest you’ll accrue. The more interest you accrue, the more time it’ll take to get your balance back to $0.
Your interest rates could change over time due to market conditions, raising your debt even if you haven’t made additional charges.

Which method is better for your credit score?

It can be tempting to make partial payments on your debt each month, but this strategy could have a negative effect long term. Making only partial payments can increase your debt burden since it will take longer to pay it off.

The two most significant factors that affect your credit score are the number of late payments made and your credit utilization ratio. Credit utilization is determined by dividing the amount of debt you carry over the total amount of available credit. Experts recommend having a utilization ratio of 20% or lower. However, the best credit scores typically have a utilization ratio of 10% or less. Making only partial payments could end up lowering your credit score because of your increased utilization rate. A better approach is to make full payments on your debt every month, which will help you get out of debt faster and improve your credit score.

The bottom line

Paying your balances off in full every month isn’t easy, especially if you’re on a fixed income. But if you want to have the best credit score possible, you should make it a habit to pay in full instead of only paying the minimum or partial payment. However, a partial payment is still better for your credit than not paying anything at all, so do the best you can with what you have and commit to changing the way you spend money so that you’ll become debt-free as quickly as possible.

Business

Retire Smart, Save More: How MDRN’s Virtual Planning Model Can Slash Retirement Costs

Published

3 days ago

October 8, 2024

Rosario Farell

The media is calling it a “retirement crisis.” Millions of Americans are arriving at retirement age woefully unprepared.

Some studies suggest that 45 percent of the Baby Boomers have no retirement savings, while 28 percent of those who have started saving have less than $100,000 put away. Consequently, many Americans now living in retirement or approaching that season are looking for ways to cut back on their expenses.

Aaron Cirksena, founder and CEO of MDRN Capital, has a solution for those looking to retire smart and save more. His firm’s completely virtual model increases retirees’ spending power by decreasing the fees associated with retirement planning.

“Our unique approach to providing retirement planning services allows our clients to experience significant savings when compared with the traditional model of investment management and retirement planning,” Cirksena shares. “When we did away with the overhead expenses that stem from operating a brick-and-mortar office, we were able to create a fee solution for our clients that is lower than the typical advisor. On average, our fees on the entire client portfolio tend to run 30 to 40 percent lower than the typical advisor operating under a conventional model. Additionally, we can provide services like estate planning, tax planning, and tax preparation at no additional cost.”

MDRN Capital is revolutionizing retirement planning by offering a comprehensive range of services, including income planning, investment management, tax planning, healthcare, and estate planning, in a setting that exceeds the efficiency and effectiveness traditional providers are able to offer. Unlike traditional firms, MDRN Capital leverages the power of digital tools to deliver comprehensive services without the need for in-person meetings, allowing clients to enjoy their retirement while their financial needs are expertly managed.

“My goal with MDRN Capital was creating a completely virtual firm that could more efficiently provide the convenience clients wanted while also meeting their ongoing investment needs,” Cirksena shares. “MDRN Capital’s virtual model empowers an environment in which we could serve our clients with less costs to the firm and pass the savings on to them.”

Financial planning for the new normal

MDRN Capital’s innovative approach to retirement advising emerged as a result of Cirksena’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing, advising during the pandemic shifted to virtual appointments. When social distancing was no longer necessary, Cirksena expected his clients would resume their pre-pandemic patterns. He was wrong.

“My clients let me know they preferred the comfort and convenience of virtual meetings to the hassles associated with having in-office meetings,” Cirksena says. “They didn’t miss sitting in traffic and searching for parking spaces, and I couldn’t blame them. Even the clients who lived only a few minutes away decided they would rather meet via Zoom than have a face-to-face meeting in our nice Class-A office space.”

MDRN Capital was designed to meet the client expectations that emerged during Covid. By leveraging technology to take his services to his clients rather than expecting them to come to him, Cirksena made advising more convenient and more cost-effective at the same time.

Financial savings for struggling retirees

Recent studies show the high inflation the US has been experiencing has a larger than average impact on many retirees. In response, many are looking to tighten their belts by cutting back on spending, but reducing the fees associated with retirement accounts is something few consider.

“For retirees, lower gas and grocery costs are certainly helpful,” Cirksena says. “However, cutting their investment management costs in half puts dramatically more money in their pocket over time than lower prices on goods ever could.”

To understand the impact MDRN Capital’s approach can have on retirees, consider that $250,000 earning seven percent over 20 years will grow to $967,421.12. Factor in a 1 percent fee, and growth is limited to $801,783.87, but raising the fee to 2 percent causes earnings to fall to $721,034.70.

Cirksena points to his industry’s failure to embrace modern technology as one reason why investment fees remain high.

“Unlike many industries that have used and adopted technology for decades to help lower costs and make services more efficient, the financial services sector has lagged behind,” he explains. “Many firms continue to incur unnecessary overhead and expenses, which their clients pay for in the form of elevated fees.”

The virtual investment environment Cirksena has created moves retirement planning into the future. It provides a financial service experience that is convenient, comfortable, and efficient while also ensuring that none of its clients’ investment potential is wasted on unnece