Pay your credit card off completely each month. The siamese twin to this tip is “don’t put anything on your credit card you can’t afford to pay off completely when the bill the comes due.”
Set up automatic payments. It’s easy through online banking or asking the bank to set up an automatic transfer so you never miss a payment. If you get paid twice a month, you can set up payments for each payday. Never missing a payment is critical to maintaining a good credit rating.
Know when your payment is due. Even if you may regular payments, if you always pay after the due date, you’ll be charged penalty fees, not to mention your interest rate will be increased. Avoid paying higher interest rates and penalty fees by ensuring you always pay by the due date.
Never spend over 30% of the capacity of your credit cards. Cross that line and your credit rating will likely take a hit.
Don’t use your credit card as an ATM. Cash advances on credit cards get charged a higher interest rate. Extra cash advance fees are also common. This is a very expensive way to access money.
If you don’t carry a balance, use a rewards card. Find rewards that suit you best whether travel points or cash back. Reward cards can come with expensive annual fees though, so look for ones with low or no annual fees.
If you tend to always have a balance on your cards, ask to switch to a no frills, low interest rate card. You may give up rewards, but you’ll save money. You can usually do this by asking the card company although they if you’ve missed payments they may decline you. Making timely payments for at least a year will allow you to ask again. And work on paying the balance off!
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