3 Strategies For Using Credit Wisely

Using credit wisely can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars through the course of your life. It can help you to get and have more and it can act as a way of securing your financial future. If you have poor credit, you are not left out because you can improve your credit and begin using credit wisely to gain the same rewards. To help you, here are some strategies that you can follow to accomplish these goals.

* Using Credit: When you are using credit, it is important for you to not make purchases that are not necessary or that are not worth the cost. Remember, it is not only the cost that the sticker says, but the finance charges that go with you that you will pay. A great way to do this is to make a rule with yourself and your spouse called the 24 hour rule. If you want to make a single purchase over the cost of, say, $200, you need to wait a full 24 hours before making that purchase. This gives you time to really determine if it is a wise choice.

* Taking On Credit: Part of managing credit is not taking on more than you can handle safely. You should not have more credit than you make in a year. And, you should not keep opening new credit lines. It does make sense to open credit cards that have lower interest rates, but make sure to close other cards as well. Some mistakenly believe that having lots of credit is good, but the fact is that too much is a bad thing too.

* Stay On Top Of It All: When you begin to fall behind in your credit, make sure that you take your credit cards, stick them in the freezer or in the back of a drawer some place so that you can’t use them. Make payments on time and pay them off each month. Never get stuck with late charges and fees.

While you should have some credit, only taking on what you can handle is a way of using credit wisely. And, in this world, you do need credit to purchase a home, to purchase a vehicle and to even get certain jobs. While you need it, you need to make sure you can handle credit.

3 Credit Tips That Will Save You Hundreds Each Year

While extremely convenient, credit cards can be a very costly consumer product. Most people don’t realize just how expensive carrying around a credit card in your wallet can be. Each year many big spending credit card consumers can throw hundreds or even thousands of dollars out the window using credit cards. Even if you’re not a big credit card spender, almost anyone can save hundreds of dollars each year with these 3 credit card tips.

Never Pay the Minimum Payment

Your credit card company usually makes sure you know that there is a minimum payment. Even if you owe thousands of dollars, your minimum payment can seem extremely low, sometimes only 3% of your total balance. However, what the credit card companies don’t tell you is that if you have a large balance and only pay the minimum payment for the next few years you will cost yourself possibly thousands of dollars in interest costs alone. In fact, that purchase at the record store for $50 over time will double. To avoid paying interest only and never touching the principle make sure you always pay more than just the minimum payment.

Transfer Your Balance to a Lower Interest Credit Card

Most Americans receive several credit card offers each month and most have some very enticing interest rate offers. For instance, many credit card offers will transfer your existing high interest rate credit card for free to the new card and allow you either zero percent interest for 6 months or a very low interest rate for a specific period of time. If you have a high balance in which you pay hundreds of dollars each year on interest payments, in many cases it is in your best interest to accept these offers and enjoy zero or low interest for the next 6 months to a year.

Use a Debit Card Instead of a Credit Card

It’s no surprise that many times we use credit cards out of habit. But why use something that is so expensive when we don’t need to. We can easily pay for that meal or fill up our car with gas with our debit card and not pay any interest. Debit cards are just as convenient as credit cards and usually accepted everywhere credit is as well. Use your debit card to avoid high interest fees in the long run and you can literally save hundreds in interest fees each year.