5 credit card mistakes to avoid

None of these are anything innovative or new.  I personally believe the best credit cards are the ones you cut in half.

 

And yes..........I do use a credit card, but I pay it off before the interest sets in.

I know not everyone can do that.  :(

The easiest way to use a credit card properly is to pay it off every month.  Before you buy something, first ask yourself do I really need this, if so, YOU have to pay it off within 30 days.  Use their money, but pay it off by the following month.  I will bet you, you do not know what the interest rate is on your card, for cash advance,  % of charge on minimum bill when the balance reaches a certain limit.  Some card charge 25-29% on balance.  Read your statements every month to know what you are being charge for.  Fraud is big business out there, check your statement for unauthorized purchases. Report anything immediately that you did not purchase to your bank or credit union ASAP.  You can be held responsible for the first $50.00 if they are not notified ASAP.  Check your credit report three times a year, free report from one of three Credit Company every quarter.  It is Free!!!

I agree.  I have a debit card that I use.  I don't have it, I don't spend it.  Credit card companies are out to make a buck even when I had cards and paid them off every month they wanted to charge me a yearly fee.  Forget it.  It's all a scam.

I began using cash only two weeks ago. Never been happier!

Why do people think debit cards are better than credit cards?

A credit card is much safer than a debit. A debit card is a direct link to your bank account and there is no limit spending on it, if someone gets a hold of it they can clean out your bank account and hard earned money. A credit card is a third party or a different line of account which has a monthly spending limit, if it gets stolen your bank money will still be safe and if you act fast enough to report it stolen then it wont cost you anything. I would choose a credit card over a debit any day because its more secure, even if I have to pay interest for it.

But it goes without saying cash is by far the safest way to do transactions to prevent theft.

When your Discover Card is overdue
And your American Express is way too large
Get a loan on your Visa Card
And pay it off with your Master Charge

My favorite piece of advise is don't just go out and randomly hand your card to strangers and tell them to go on a shopping spree!!!!

Credit cards can be a trap. I want to close one but if I do my credit will take a hit. So I purchase small things on it every month and pay it off immediately (the balance is no more than $10).

 

My other Amex (Starwood) I use for the free trips. I try to keep the balance as close to zero as possible. It gets difficult because its "easy" to swipe...and this is not even for shopping. This is for daily expenses (Groceries, utiliy bills, cable etc). It can easily run to almost $1000 a month. It gets paid off but Im trying to get to a point where I dont need it. Which is just a matter of timing (the bills are due before the paycheck).

Capital 1 and HSBC both charge so much interest and never relent on anything---I agree with the service charge that they charge to use their cards---$39 or $59 isn't this quite redundant---a debit card is the way to go and believe me if you don't pay a bill or they don't send a bill and it gets turned over and you pay a second party the creeps put you on the Credit lists and never take it off even though you have paid off to the second party who bought this---how are they allowed to do that??????????????

I use a finance software to keep track of money and credit cards. I go one step further with the paying off the balance each month. What ever amount my software shows that I owe is what I pay for the month. This takes care of the overlap for some purchases that were made too close to the statement cutoff date and normally would carry over to the next month. My zero balance is always based on my software and not just the credit card statement.