Saturday 7 June 2008

How I manage my credit card debts

One, two, three….Hey! I am talking about my plastics – credit cards that is! Three! These days it’s so easy to get one. You see initially I just own a Visa but one day while shopping at our local hypermart I got another two, one more Visa and a Mastercard just basing on my creditability of owning the first one!

But bad news I got myself stuck with debts as I could only manage pay each month the minimum amount of the total debts incurred. Then it occurred to me that if I don’t manage my spending I would be heading for financial disaster.

Here’s what I did to extricate from my financial woes:

1. Avoid all consumer debt and didn't borrow to spend.
2. Pay only with cash. When I pay with credit card, I paid off the total balance each month.

But now I have turned the table on credit cards and use them carefully as a powerful wealth tool. You too may enjoy these benefits:

1. A two-months interest free loan – how? When you buy in a month you will only be billed at that month end, but you got another month to pay off!
2. Use 0% APR Balance transfer Card – if for some reasons you are stuck with a high interest card you could transfer the interest bearing balance to one with 0%.
3. Bonus points – you earn points for every purchase and could redeem for free products and services.
4. A monthly statement that tracks all your expenses.

To get maximum effect I pay the full balance outstanding every month to rein my debts. Try it. It works!