Credit Card Management: Your Plastic Money need not Dictate Your Financial Future

Summary: Special attention to a few aspects when buying, spending, and using your credit cards in the long run, can help you manage your plastic money more skilfully.

Credit cards give freedom from having to carry cash everywhere. They are more than handy when faced with money needs during emergencies. Used well, credit cards can bring you benefits in the form of greater credit limit, more purchase capacity, and rewards. Negligence in managing your plastic money can however increase your debts and leave you financially unsound.

The good news is you can always improve the way you manage your credit cards:
When Buying Credit Cards…
Look at several factors when buying a credit card. Compare interest rates, credit limit, grace period, defaulting charges, additional fee, charges for usage abroad, and added benefits, offered by different service providers. Go through the product booklet in detail, to gather information about these salient aspects.

Pay special attention to APR or Annual Percentage Rate, which simply put, is the rate of interest that applies to your credit taken through the card. Service providers apply APR for different activities performed through the card, including purchases and cash advances (A cash advance is a service offered by your credit card company to withdraw up to a specified amount of cash through ATMs or financial institutions such as a banks; interest, often high rates, applies to such advances). Get to know from your service provider, the charges that you might incur as APR for different card activities.

Purchase no more than a single credit card, if possible. Managing multiple cards can be difficult. Payments and penalties on multiple cards, especially when you can manage with a single one, can turn costly on your finances.

When Spending Using Credit Cards…
Practise curbing your temptation to shop on impulse. Buy a commodity only because you need it and not because you have a credit card handy.

Be prompt with your credit card payments every month. You’ll only accrue debt by postponing payments. And, the more the debt, the more miserable your life tends to become. Moreover, being late on payments can have you staring at increased interest rates, as credit card companies are known to increase rates as a penalty for late payments.

If you have more than one credit card, prioritise payments on the basis of their interest rates; the higher the interest rates, the sooner the payment needs to be cleared off.

Make use of benefits that you stand to gain by being regular with your payments. Many credit card companies offer loyalty points that you can redeem by purchasing products; or availing deals in hotels, flight, or other.

For the Long Run…
Make note of essential details such as credit card number, validity period, and your credit card service provider’s phone numbers. These details come in handy in cases of credit card loss through theft or misplacement.

Make it a habit to go through your monthly credit card statements to find out if there are any discrepancies between print and reality. If you encounter transactions that you never conducted, report to your credit card service provider immediately. Report the same to a credit card regulatory authority in your region.

 Avoid applying for new cards to settle dues on old cards. You are most likely to be piled with debts by doing so.

Find out if credit card educational programmes such as counselling or awareness services are available in your region. Consider attending such programmes, if available. These programmes can increase your awareness about credit card management and guide you through best practices.

How do you manage your credit cards? Share your best practices here.

UAE Exchange Customer Celebration Brings More Smiles of Happiness

Celebrating customers is a way of life at UAE Exchange. This philosophy is ingrained in each of our employees, from those working at the front-desk to people making things happen behind the curtains of anonymity. Together, we work to make our customers’ lives happier not just through excellence in products and services but through our promotions too.
UAE Exchange India recently celebrated the victory of one of its customers at a formal event held on April 8, 2013, at Kasaragod, Kerala. The event was held at UAE Exchange’s Kasaragod branch. The winner, Ms. Beefathima, participated in the promotion by making a money transfer transaction at Kasaragod branch on February 23, 2013. The promotion period was between January 1 and March 31, 2013. Ms. Beefathima won a Royal Enfield motorbike.

Promotions are a medium that UAE Exchange uses to appreciate the loyalty that customers continue to support us with. UAE Exchange looks forward to facilitating more such happy stories for its customers and making their dreams come true.