Top 10 Credit Card Management Tips

Credit Card Tips Which Help You Manage Your Card Account

Managing a credit card is not difficult as long as you have the funds to maintain it correctly but even if you have sufficient funds it is how you manage your credit card that is important and cost effective.

Habits are formed early with your credit card use and bad habits can be hard to break.    Unless you have found yourself in a situation where you find it difficult to meet your monthly repayments maintaining good habits is the way to go and here are some credit card tips for healthy credit card usage.

Credit card tips:

1. Maintain a credit card balance that you can manage on your income

2. Pay your monthly payments on time and it is a good idea to make sure that if you are using internet banking you allow a transfer time of 3 working days

3. Endeavour to pay more than your monthly requirement.  If you can pay off more each month you will be saving yourself some interest on any balance you have on the card.  You will also be paying off the balance quicker if you can pay that little extra each month.

4. A good habit is to try and pay off the balance each and every month.  This means that you won’t be carrying over any balance and also you won’t be charged any interest if your card has interest free days.

5. One step that can help you avoid Late Fees is by setting up a CardPay Direct payment from your transaction account.  By setting the date before your due date on your credit card you won’t get charged the Late Fees. Debits can take a few weeks to activate so check the payment cycle if you set up a direct debit and make sure you are covered because you don’t want to miss one while you are setting it up.

6. Keep in mind that if you do pay more off your credit card balance this month that extra amount does not go towards next month’s payment.  Each month has a minimum amount to be paid within that month regardless.

7. If you have spare cash sitting in a savings account, consider using this to pay off your credit card as it could save a lot of interest.

8. Manage your credit limit.  If you get offered a credit increase, seriously consider whether to take up the offer and only do so if you really need the extra amount.  Ensure that you can pay it off.  Also you can reduce a credit limit if you find you don’t need it and this will help control impulse spending.

9. Before making a big purchase on your credit card, which will more than likely incur interest, carefully consider whether using your card is the best option or saving up to purchase the item for cash.

10. Keep track of your card balance.  If you go over your credit limit you will be charged an Overlimit Fee.   This is easy to do in situations where there are delayed transactions going to your account and this can happen over the weekend.

All are fees are expensive and can easily add up.  The two fees to watch for are:

1. Late payment fee

2. Overlimit fee

For example a late payment fee charged to your account can then cause you to be over the limit and you will end up with an Overlimit Fee as well and those two fees alone could add up $120 depending on the fee structure of your credit card provider.  Using these credit card tips could help you save hundreds of dollars per year.

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