Here are our nine top tips to have you running your credit card and not the other way round.
1. Decide on your purpose for having a credit card; is it for travel, accruing points or to make your cash flow smoother?
2. Only have one credit card – pick a good one that works for your purpose
3. Keep your limit to one months salary – that way you can pay it off in full every month
4. Unsubscribe from limit increase offers – you can usually do this via online banking
5. Understand how the interest-free period works and when you need to pay your balance
6. Set up an automatic payment from your cash account to ensure you meet the credit card statement due date
7. Browse a comparison site to ensure your credit card is actually the best for you –
8. Make balance transfer offers work for you – if you find yourself in a credit card pickle, look at how you can utilize the 0% interest offers to clear your debt faster
9. Don’t have one.
At the end of the day, running your credit card successfully comes down to discipline. The card can have all the points or low fees however if you are not disciplined in your spending, a seemingly innocent balance can quickly spiral out of control.
The simplest way to be on top of your credit card is to simply not have one – an outcome we aim to reach with many of our members.
If your credit card balance is something that makes you weep rather than cheer, we’d love to help you put some strategies into place to turn that frown upside down. You can contact us here.
