Using Credit Cards Responsibly For Financial Freedom
Posted at by CreditWiz on category Credit CardsMany people have become afraid of credit cards because of the many financial horror stories that they have heard. There is no reason to fear owning a credit card. They can be very helpful when a person needs to make a large purchase, or prefers not to carry or use cash. In the following guide, you will be able to read great credit card advice.
If you apply for a store branded credit card, make sure it is a store that you shop at regularly. When stores submit an inquiry into your credit history for a card, this gets reported on your credit report whether or not you ultimately get the card. Repeated applications for credit could negatively affect your overall credit score.
Review the specific terms of the offer. Before accepting any credit card offer ensure you know all the details. Know what the real interest rate is, if it goes up after the first year and how much time they allow for payment of it. Finding out about these details, including other details like grace periods and add-on fees, will help you stay out in front of your payments.
Alert your credit card issuer the moment you are having financial difficulty. If you are going to miss a payment, see if your company will work with you to adjust your payment plan. That may cause them to hold off reporting you to the credit agencies as being late.
Be aware of any changes made to the terms and conditions. It is common for companies to change credit terms very often. Many times, the terms that are buried deep in legal language, particularly the changes, that are most important. Make sure you’re going over it all so you can see if these changes are going to affect you. These could be more fees and rate adjustments.
Try to avoid closing accounts. It may be the initial reaction when you want to preserve the score of your credit, but it will actually have the opposite effect by making your score worse. This is so because it subtracts how much credit you can have from your overall credit. Then it lowers how much you owe and how much credit you are able to maintain.
If you are shopping around for secured cards, stay away from prepaid cards. Prepaid cards are not actually credit cards, they are debit cards, and their use isn’t reported to credit bureaus. In actuality, these cards are really just high-interest checking accounts that are loaded with extra costs and fees. Pay a deposit and get an actual secured card that will help better your credit.
Once you decide to open a credit card account, keep it open. It is not good to switch up accounts unless it’s vital. The total amount of time you have had credit available to you is a factor in your credit score. Another element to establishing credit is to maintain and keep you credit accounts open and active at all times.
Try to avoid paying for grocery and restaurant bills on a credit card because they sometimes take a long time to show up on your statement and you will underestimate your available balance. You can end up spending more since you will think your balance is lower than it actually is.
The credit information in this article will help individuals overcome their fear of credit card usage. When used in the correct manner, credit cards can be very useful, so fear not! If you follow the advice that was in this article, using your credit card responsibly will be easy.