Thinking Responsibly With Your Credit Card

Once you decide to start carrying a credit card around in your purse or wallet, it is time to start thinking about how you will be responsible with it. Remember, it is not your goal to spend every dollar of your credit as soon as possible. Rather, you should sit down and determine a monthly budget so you know how much you can spend on your credit card and still be able to pay it off at the end of the month. Once you have determined that figure, do not exceed that amount unless an emergency occurs – and an “emergency” is not that cute pair of shoes or nice car accessory you just spotted in a catalogue.

When you get your credit card statement at the end of the billing cycle, you will notice a minimum payment amount . Don’t pay just this amount. Pay off the bill in its entirety. Or, if you did have to spend more than your monthly allotment, be sure to still send in the amount you initially set aside for your monthly payments. If you have extra, send that as well. The quicker you pay off the credit card debt, the less money you will lose in the form of finance charges.