The other day I published the article 6 Reasons You Should Look Into Getting Your First Credit Card. Even though I am all for credit cards, I know and understand that many people misuse them. Misusing credit cards can lead to debt, stress, money problems, and more. These are all things that people do not want.
Below are my tips on how to make sure you use credit cards correctly so that you don?t go into credit card debt:
Always review your transactions.
I like to review my transactions on my credit cards around once per week. This way I don?t get too overwhelmed, like I would if I waited until the end of each month to review my credit card transactions.
Reviewing your transactions is important because you can see if there are any mistakes or if someone has your credit card information.
Report a missing or stolen credit card immediately.
If you can?t your find your credit or if you know someone has your credit card information, then you need to report this immediately. This is so that your credit card company will be alerted about any future transactions, and so that they can cancel your credit card and get you a new one. This then prevents whoever may have your credit card information from successfully using it.
Have a budget.
If you are using a credit card, you need to make sure that you always have a budget. It is so easy to spend money out of control when you have a credit card so keeping limits on yourself is very important.
Pay your credit card balance off completely each month.
Unless you have a 0% interest rate, it is always wise to pay off your credit card in full each month. This is so that you can avoid any credit card interest fees, late fees, and whatever else the credit card company may decide to charge you.
Interest fees can add up quickly, and they can build upon themselves until your credit card debt spirals out of control.
Always be careful where you use your credit card.
Credit card information is very personal information, so you want to be careful with who you give it to. If you do not feel right about using your credit card somewhere, then you should trust your intuition and just use cash instead. This will save you hassle later in case someone does end up stealing your credit card information.
What other tips do you have to share? Have you ever made a credit card mistake?
