Credit Card History – How Did You Fare In 2009?
Posted January 14th, 2010Discover the benefits of drawing up a credit card history. Understand why it is important to review the previous year’s credit card spending so that 2010 is a cheaper year for you.
You may never have asked to see your credit report, but that should not stop you compiling your own annual credit card history. This is a way to assess your credit card activity in the previous twelve months, and it can go a long way towards identifying any bad habits and unnecessary spending that may have taken place.
The best time to do this is early in the New Year while the notion of making a fresh start is still alive in your thoughts. To do this effectively, you should gather together your credit card statements from the past year, and also take the opportunity to review your official credit report. This is clearly important as it gives you an objective assessment of your credit card history, and other lending activities. If you are thinking that you have done okay this year, but your credit history has deteriorated, this should cause a few alarm bells to ring.
Elements of a credit card history:
The elements you should be looking at when compiling a credit card history are:
The cost of your credit card spending – This will mean you have to add up your total credit card spending on all your credit cards. This may reveal you have spent far more than you thought, and can be very useful if you are wondering where all the money went in 2009. You should also try to separate out the essential from the non-essential purchases and assess whether you have actually made much use of the non-essentials you bought. Many times, you make an impulse buy and then the item is rarely or never used. Spotting the type of bad buys you made last year can help you avoid making more in 2010.
How much credit card debt did you end 2009 with? – This is another crucial factor in your credit card history. If you had a clean slate on December 31st, well done. If not, then you may want to check out the great balance transfers deals currently available to start 2010 with a reduce rate of interest.
How much interest have you paid? – This is allied to the previous point. You need to know what portion of your repayments was made up by interest charges. Again, a balance transfer may be in order, and you certainly should be looking to clear your debts as soon as possible to avoid 2010 being the same as 2009. You should also make sure you are not financing the wrong purchases or items on your credit card, if they have led to you accruing interest.
How much did your credit cards cost you in total? – This part of your credit card history is easy to overlook, and it involves totting up all the fees and charges you may have paid over the year, and adding those into the mix. Check out the credit card offers on the market to see if there is a way to reduce these extra charges this coming year.
Taking the time to compile a credit card history could be one of the best moves you make this year. It may prove shocking, but that may be just the eye-opener you need to make some improvements for 2010.
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