<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance, Im buying an engagement ring for my fiancé - weve been engaged for about 3yrs and he got me a ring when we got engaged that I get to wear all of the time and I want him to have something to wear too since we might not be officially getting married for a couple more years. Im looking at rings in the 3-4K range. I have this money in my bank account right now but I also owe that much plus 1K in credit card debt. What would be the best course of action for buying the ring? Use a credit card to get cash backpoints? Pay my credit card off and then make the purchase with that card? Take out a new card with no interest for 6 months? Another option I havent thought about? I appreciate the help! Ive been a long time lurker and you guys always have great points of views! Thank you!!Edit: Although I know its not the wisest decision, Ive already made up my mind to go ahead and do this. I didnt do it while I was in grad school and super poor but we now have a combined income of 200K so my debt will be going away soon. Either way - anyone have any idea what would be the best payment method?Assistant: From a pure financial perspective - this is an unwise purchase. So my advice is dont buy it. You dont want to take on another 3k worth of debt.Also I dont know what kind of rings you are looking at here - Im married and my wedding band cost under 500, and that is probably still much more expensive than you can get. I also know personally I would not wanted to have worn a ring during my engagement - but that may just be me.If you have to make any sort of 3k purchase for any non-essential reason Id try to pay off as much debt as possible first.So, dont do it, go much much cheaper, or avoid till debt payoff - with my advice heavily towards dont do it.Human: He definitely would want one and we have looked at them together. Im finally getting to a point where I can breathe a bit after getting out of grad school and our combined income is pretty high now so things are likely to get better.From a pure financial perspective - what would you say the best payment method would be?  <response>: Cash. Pay off your CC debt, save enough money to afford the ring, and then and only then, buy it.Once you have enough money to buy it in cash and you have no CC debt, you can think about paying for it on a CC if you get cash back rewards for doing so, and then pay off the balance IN FULL THAT MONTH. There is never, never, never a good reason to put something on a cash back card if you cant pay it in full that month. 20 CC interest slaughters 1 cash back every time. 