Credit Card Tips

Hullo hullo everyone!

This goes out especially to those who are still familiarising themselves with the luxury of 'plastic money'...(psst! I include myself in that category)..

My first question; do you have a credit card? I'm sure most of you have at least two credit cards. According to the president of TrueCredit.com, Jan Davis, most college students need no more than 2 credit cards. I think EVERYONE shouldn't have more than two credit cards but I'm no expert. lol. I just feel that we shouldn't be spending more than the amount that we're earning. And I make sure I pay off my balance in full at the end of every month. Oh by the way, for disciplined spenders (such as moi :-P), the founder of CardRatings.com, Curtis Arnold, suggested to "go for a rewards card that is tailored to your spending habits".

If you have more than 1 credit card, you should have one which you keep for emergencies..such as a car breakdown, or a Gucci handbag which you accidentally come accross when you're window-shopping while waiting for your car to get fixed (haha just kidding!)

Anyway, here are a couple of useful tips / reminders for us:-

- Don't apply for a lot of credit cards just to get the freebies. Even if you never use them they can still hurt your credit record (and you know you won't be happy about that). So people, resist the temptation for those freebies!

- Keep your credit limit low. A low credit limit will help you resist the urge to splurge. Peter Bielagus, a Boston financial adviser, said that usually we're given a low credit limit to start off with. After maybe a year, we will receive a congratulatory letter informing us that our credit limit has been increased. When that happens, we should call the credit card issuer and decline the offer. Bielagus says if the issuer refuses to oblige to our request, we should just close the account. (customer power..yeah!)

OK sorry peeps, I gotta stop here. Too much distractions. See you soon..(hope it'll be sooner than next month).

sources: http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/24/pf/college/cards_grads/index.htm?postversion=2007052413, http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2003-08-11-ym_x.htm.