10 Suggestions for Proper Credit Card Usage
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Being financially responsible means you have to motivate yourself to do what you need in establishing good habits when it 
comes to dealing with your credit card and their uses. Here, then are 10 suggestions that you need to use in order to create positive credit card habits.
Get only what you need. Do not sign up for credit cards indiscriminately. You need to obtain only what you need and can effectively manage. The more cards that you get, the more difficult that it becomes to keep track of due dates, credit limits, balances and so on. This advice is especially true for young people who are obtaining their first card. And, it might be good advice, too, for seniors to consider as well.
Read the terms. Before you sign up for the card, read the fine print and notice what you will be paying for in fees if you get behind. This should be enough to maybe keep you from obtaining one in the first place.
Avoid hitting your credit limit. Do not get anywhere near your credit limit. This will force two things to happen to your account. First, you will be hit with over the limit fees if you go over. Next, your interest rate will probably be raised because you are considered a higher risk. Use 80 percent of your credit limit, but no more.
Charge only things you can pay off in 30 days. In order to promote good credit habits, charge only small items that you can pay off in 30 days. This will help you establish a good track record for payments. The credit scoring procedures are more focused on the fact that you pay your bills on time, and not as much on the amount.
Make payments on time. Make every effort to make your payments on time. Being late causes late fees to be added to your account. It is just like making charges to your account, only these you did not obtain any merchandise with, only adding to your balance.
Watch for fraud. Monitor your credit card accounts online so that you can spot and alert your credit card company if fraudulent charges show up. These need to be handled quickly even though you will not be paying for them. You need to get them off of your account as soon as possible. Use your credit card procedures for alerting them to these problems.
Monitor fees and interest rate changes. Watch your statement for fees and interest rate changes. The fee changes will be announced in a mailing to your residence. Your interest rate changes are not. When your account becomes too costly to continue, then consider moving to another card.
Request a new card number regularly. For security purposes, request a new card regularly. Every three months is about as soon as you would want to go and six months is probably more reasonable. What this will do is help to prevent your card from being used if it is stolen from a database of numbers. The only downside to this is that if you have automatic payments that come out of your card on a monthly basis, you will have to change those. This is a small price to pay for the added security, however.
Be cautious in your usage activities. Do not be careless with your card in any way. Do not let others use or handle your card. You alone are responsible for it and will bear the consequences if it is used by others.
Move to other cards with better rates and terms. Finally, if you find that you need to get a better rate, find a good balance transfer card to which you can move some of your balances.
