There is no shortage of offers for credit cards in the mail, on line and more or less everywhere you look. However, quite often the task of maintaining your credit card can be more difficult than getting the right credit card for your needs.
High Street stores are always too willing to give you some sort of discount the day you sign up for a card, and lets face it, the extra 10% discount is usually very tempting. After this discount, you find yourself stuck with another monthly credit card bill.
One of the biggest problems with credit cards is that they can cover up that you are actually spending money. By not actually spending cash, you can feel that your purchases are not really costing you at all. Ultimately, this is an expensive illusion and your reality can become very painful indeed if you build up too much credit card debt.
Credit cards were not made with budgeting in mind, because each month, there is a payment that has to be paid, and even though being able to meet the minimum payment does not bring about any sort of late payment fees, just look at the balance, it is more or less standing still!
Ask yourself just how long it would take you to get rid of the debt completely if you didn’t charge another penny to the account. Never consider getting a new credit card to transfer a balance unless the new card offers you interest free credit for a certain amount of time, ideally the time it will take for you to pay off all of the debt.
To avoid the worst problems of credit card usage, don’t have too many of them. One, or at the most two, of them is enough to meet most needs, and the major credit cards are accepted globally so you don’t need to apply for new credit cards when you travel overseas. Having too many credit cards can become an organizational nightmare; too many due dates can leave bills forgotten, late and receiving costly late payment penalties.
Another credit card temptation that can get you in a lot of trouble is the ability to borrow cash on your card. This is known as a cash advance and it enables you to withdraw cash from your card via an ATM. However, this form of borrowing is usually charged at high interest, calculated daily, and is ultimately a very expensive way to borrow. It can be too easy to create a level of debt that is too high for you to service. If you are going through a difficult time, withdrawing money from your credit card can seem a godsend. Unfortunately, your debt can climb dramatically over the course of a few months and with exorbitant interest rates you can find yourself in real trouble. It is also a good idea to stick to a low cost, no frills credit card that offers low interest and no annual fee.
If you make regular visits to the ATM it soon mounts up and your debt will soar over just a few months. The interest can be as high as 24% so this really should be avoided. It clearly makes sense to avoid the temptations of rewards and bonuses and opt for a no frills card with low interest and no annual fee.
A good credit history can be established by using credit cards as long as it is done responsibly and payments are made when they should be. It is important that your credit rating is healthy, just in case you need to buy a larger item, say a car for example. This is the time when you will be rewarded for your good history. Unnecessary shopping sprees, cash advances and late payments all go into creating your credit rating so if you want to use a credit card and build up your rating at the same time, its best to think of the card as cash and only spend what you can afford to pay back each month.