Credit cards can be a blessing or a curse

I have had my problems with credit cards. It was actually only one credit card, but what a lot of trouble it caused me. It was one of those credit card offers for 0% Balance Transfers. It seemed like a good idea to transfer all my high interest rate credit cards to one card, and there was no beating zero percent interest rate!

Was I wrong! I soon regretted applying for that credit card. When I received my statement, I realized that I had not read the fine print, so I paid a premium transfer fee and my minimum payment was $350 per month.

One month I was late by one day with the minimum payment. Wham, I was hit with a $35 late fee. Whack, my interest rate went from zero to 28.99 percent and my payment jumped by $100 per month. I called the credit card company and asked for grace on that one late payment. They were so sorry, but their policy was ... blah blah blah.

Luckily, I still had those credit cards I had paid off. The companies had been sending me these checks to transfer balances and offering a lower interest rate. I read the fine print this time and selected the credit card with the most to offer. I also set up an automatic payment to be paid 7 days in advance of the statement due date so that I would NEVER be late with a payment again.

Credit can be a blessing or a curse. Use it wisely. Visit ThriftyScot, sponsor of this post, for many articles on how to make the most of your credit.

Tags: credit cards, ThriftyScot, 0% balance transfers, minimum payments