Keeping your credit card debts in check should be your sole aim
in life if you want to live a financially viable life, because
if you don't the fall out of having a lot of debt on your credit
cards can start to affect other parts of your life.
As much as credit cards are a handy spending tool, they are
double the trouble if they are not taken care of and can give
you problems that you could never have imagined when you first
applied for the card.
Though credit cards are becoming a must have tool to have in
this day and age, to book things such as concert tickets and
theatre tickets over the phone or to buy goods at cheaper prices
on the Internet, what you have top remember is that a credit
card has a higher than normal APR attached to it, than other
debt such as Personal Loans and Mortgages.
There are though a few simple and common sense practices that
you can apply to your credit card and the way that you spend on
it.
Firstly you can try and be a little choosier on the purchases
that you make, we all know how handy the credit card is to use
on purchases that you don't have the ready cash for, but to buy
goods that your income can simply support is a bad practice, as
it will only lead you in to debt interest charges being added to
the already obscene cost of the item and by the time that you
have eventually paid it off, there's a new model out and the one
you have costs less than half the price new.
Lesson: Avoid
temptation.
This first practice could then lead to you only being able to
afford to pay the minimum payments to your credit card, this has
to be avoided also as it will leave you paying off debt for many
a year and for goods again that are either past there sell by
date or already in the back of your council refuge truck.
Lesson: Pay more than the Minimum Payment.
Always check your credit card statement for any phantom payments
taken from your card, though not a regular occurrence, mistakes
can happen and it will also let you catch any fraud being
applied to your credit card account.
Lesson: Don't pay for
something you haven't bought.
There are few things that the credit card issuer will also
change about your card and they can do so when they please, one
is to raise your APR, if they do so be prepare to move to a
credit card issuer who can offer you a better deal.
Lesson:
Switch to save.
Another is the raising of your credit limit, again when you are
checking your statement check this as well, as the hope of the
credit card company is that you get the false security of being
better off than you are and that if the credit card issuer says
I can have it, then I must be able to afford to spend it.
Lesson: Stay within your means.
Keep on top of your credit card and don't let it get on top of
you, by doing this you will master the card, rather than the
MasterCard getting the better of you.
About the author:
Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gb For additional
articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit
cards, please visit us at
http://www.creditcards-gb.
co.uk and
http://www.creditcards2go4.
com
