5 Things to remember about your credit card

in Project HOPE2 years ago

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Never miss your credit card payment due date

If you miss a payment date you would have to pay a late fee. In addition there would be interest levied on your due amount.

Missing your due date can burn a big hole in your pocket at credit card companies charge a huge amount from you if you miss a payment deadline.
So if money is a problem try to at least pay the minimum due amount.

Try to pay the whole payment credit card amount

Your credit card statement has two amounts displayed.
One is the minimum amount due and the other is the statement amount.
There are some people who simply pay the minimum amount due and let the rest of the amount roll over to the next billing cycle.

This caused the credit card company to charge a huge interest which can be as high as 35-40% rate of interest on the unpaid amount.
This can make things really difficult for you. So it is always good to clear the entire amount due on your card before or on the last date of payment.
Making your payments regularly and timely helps you build your credit ratings.
This helps in the long run and specially if you were to take a loan.
A good credit rating helps you get a bigger loan or a loan at a relatively good interest rates as compared to a person who defaults regularly on his payments.

Never withdraw cash from your credit card at the ATM

The moment you withdraw money from the ATM using your credit card you start getting charged a huge rate of interest by the credit card company.
The interest rate can be as large as 35 to 40% Depending upon the terms of the card you may also have to pay financial charges in addition to these charges.

Try not to use up all your credit limit

If your credit limit is $5000 on your card try not to use all the limit in a billing cycle. This is to show that you do not really need the credit.
This way you can built a good credit rating and over a period of time your credit rating and the limit on your card increases.

In case you actually need to use the $5000 limit then a good practice is to spread your spends over a number of cards.

For this reason it is a good practice to have a number of credit cards from different banks or credit card companies.

Be aware of your billing cycle

If you know the date on which your credit card company generates your bill then you can pace your spending in such a way that you get a good amount of time to make the payments.

Final thoughts

With Money comes a lot of responsibility. A credit card is a tool which when used right can bring a lot of benefits to you however if used incorrectly can cause unnecessary charges and financial burden. Use it wisely and you would be a happy person.

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Difficult!!

We need financial eduation, because money is very important in the world...

tips to save, make and not lose money very much needed...

Lots of people have told, please don't have credit card, it's away, and don't take loans in credit card...

anyway

Hi @mintymile
I had a similar view however it has changed or shall I say evolved over time. Now I use a credit card regularly and use it to my advantage every time.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views @mintymile
appreciate it :)

These are really nice tips for those that use credit cards, and I have learnt a couple of new things. Thanks for sharing this excellent piece buddy.

Appreciate the shared knowledge buddy, money indeed comes with so many responsibilities, and when it isn't handled appropriately, what we will have about it on the long run is our regrets and pain. Credit cards could either be an avenue to increased financial smile or tears., depending on how we use them.