Finance Is Personal

Excellent Credit Card Rules: How not to get into the credit card quicksand

by Mcneri

Credit Cards are one of the easiest instruments of civilized society. The companies come as ‘pussy cats’ and leave as ‘lions’. However there are a few long-established rules that have stood the test of time, These rules help you navigate that industry without sweat. The good thing about the credit card rules is that they are echoed all over the internet. Most personal finance websites and frugality blogs have it in one form or the other. I will outline some of them here and I am certain there may be new ones that my readers know that I have not included. Please feel free to add them here too.

1. Pay off your balance ALWAYS. Any dollar not paid will accrue interests in the next billing cycle and that is money wasted.

2. Send in your payment in good time electronically. Mailing a check may sound good, but if there is any delay or your mail gets lost, then you get hit with the late fees and it may even ding you credit score. Electronic payments have become3 so reliable these days that it is now the norm. Caveat: That you pay electronically does not always ensure that your money will get there in time. One of the popular hardware chains in the US has a store credit card that takes 3-5 days to process online payments. They actually state it clearly on their website so if you send your payment late, you get the late charges.

3. Always look at you credit card bills. This is common mistake seen with couples where only one person handles the finances. Spurious charges get paid because the other party “assumed” it was a proper charge. Check and verify that you actually spent what you are paying.

4. Getting rewards cards makes sense if there are no hoops like expiration and minimum expenditure before you can claim a reward. However, I must say that with the recent Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act in the United States, rewards have been shrinking fast. Check out this post by Liz Pulliam on MSN Money.

5.Watch your interest rate just in case you have to carry a balance. I started off on one American Express Credit card three years ago at 8.99% APR. Soon enough (possibly when they saw that I was indeed payingoff my balances), it went up to 10.98%. Well who cares, I pay off my balances every month and that is the way it is going to be.

6. Use automatic bi-monthly payment. If you set up you account to send in payments on the 1st and 15th of every month, you will indeed NEVER miss a payment. One may ask “So how much should I pay?”. Well, that depends on what your average charges on the card is. Pay half each time. If the money is short, you can make it up in the second payment and if it exceeds the charges, you have to choice to reduce the second payment or pay down the next month’s balance.

7. Get account tracking free software like Mint.com or Quicken and USE IT!

CrunchBase Information on Mint

Mint

Information provided by CrunchBase

June 12, 2010 4 Comments

How to Permanently Avoid Credit Card Fees

by Mcneri

Credit card companies make a killing from fees. Often times we have been hit by these fees because of a late payment, or eve a missed payment or over-the-limit fee. There are a couple of simple things that I have put in place that ensure that I never have to pay those fees again.

Never go over your limit

That is as simple as it gets. Do not even go close to your limit. To make the best use of credit, utilize at the most 30% of your available credit. that way, going above the limit is certainly out of the question. Watch those balances real close. The more room you have, the better this will reflect your credit-worthiness on your credit report.

Automate your payment

Almost every bank in the US has online payment system. The same goes for most credit card companies. make your payments automatic. that way even if you suddenly have no internet access, your monthly payments will be going in. I usually pay off all my credit card balances every cycle, so I do not carry a balance. I thus set it to pay everything, every month. Some cards will not allow you to do that, so you can set them to at least pay the minimum every month. That ensures no missed payment because the company gets something every payment cycle.

No late fee

With the first two well set up, the next thing you must do is to setup twice a month payment spaced by 14-15 days. You can set it up to remit payment every 1st and 15th of the month. This ensures that the credit card company does recieve something from you withing each billing cycle and it is more than the minimum payment because you are sending two automated minimum payments per month. This last technique works best for me when I take zero percent cards. That way with an automated systematic bi-monthly payment, I can ensure that by the time the promotional period is ending, I have paid off the balance!

March 22, 2010 No Comments

Fifty-two ways to Improve Your Finances

by Mcneri

Below is a list of fifty-two unique suggestions of how to improve your financial situation. Each of the suggestions links to sources of more information on how to go about it or where the suggestion has come from. They also link to posts on this blog that give the suggestion in more detail. Enjoy!

1. Get a raise

2. Get a new job or turn your hobby into money

3. Get an extra job

4. Make money from your hobby

5. Sell on Ebay

6. Sell on Craig List

7. Sell to your friends

8. Live off a budget

9. Pay off your credit cards

10. Freeze your credit cards

11. Get promotional rate on your credit card

12. Remove premium channel from your cable