Credit Card

Once you have realized that it is probably the right time for you to own a credit card, you need to chalk out a plan to manage it accordingly and efficiently.

We give you eight simple and compact ways to manage all your credit cards.

1. Don’t keep on buying one card after another. One should ideally own only one major to-be-used-most credit card.

2. Go for a credit card for which you are not required to pay any annual charges or fees. It should also offer a low rate of interest and a sufficient grace period of twenty to thirty days for you to wrap up payments of new purchases well before they charge you any interest. You shouldn’t ideally go for credit cards that offer annual processing charges. Credit cards offering low rates of interest initially drastically shoot up the rates after a while. You can also access various websites on the internet to get to know about the latest deals in credit cards. One good example is "http://www.bankrate.com" www.bankrate.com.

3. You must make sure that your credit card has been secured by a deposit in the bank. This means that you should be having sufficient money in your savings bank account that matched up to the credit limit in your credit card. A credit card that is secured will help you with flexible and smooth credit card and banking operations, thus leaving you with a healthy credit history.

4. It is advisable to not use your credit card except in cases of dire emergency where you will atleast be able to give yourself sufficient time to gather funds and repay. You should not use the cards for expenses that you can’t write off at that very moment. We just hope your emergencies wont include eating out and shopping!


5. Pay all that you have to along with all the charges well in advance and days before the due date of payment. If you can write off the entire payment, nothing like it. Although if you cant, then just try and pay a little more than what has been fixed as minimum payment so that the interest and other charges remain low.

6. Your credit card is nothing but a loan that you are availing. You must ask yourself before you take out your credit card out of your pocket whether you would actually visit a bank and apply for a loan for the thing you are using the credit card for.

7. You must also deduct your expenditure by the credit card on your purchases you’re your current account to leave you with sufficient amount of money to be paying your credit card statements.

8. Never make use of the cash advances from your credit card except in cases of dire emergencies. You will most probably have to pay some charges for this money with the interest being deducted immediately, at that very moment.  

Image and Article Credit: MensXP.com