When first getting their hands on a credit card, a lot of people approach this financial product with the same sort of idea. Reserving this tool for emergencies and payments which can’t be covered by regular means, you will be very good with your credit, and won’t let it overcome you.
Of course, though, it isn’t usually as simple as this. It can be far too easy to let your balance pile up, quickly reaching your limit if you don’t put the right time into it, eventually causing your credit card to become permanent stress in the back of your mind.
To help you out with this, this post will be exploring the ensnaring qualities of a credit card, and how you can avoid falling into the trap they present.
#1 The Minimum Payment
Credit cards don’t act like a normal loan contract. Instead of having scheduled payment plans to follow, cardholders can choose to pay back whatever they like each month.
There will always be a minimum payment, but this is often only a very small fraction of what you actually owe, making it easy to avoid having to pay back much each month. In a lot of cases, you may only have to contribute 1% of your total debt each month.
Without interest, this means that it could take 100 months to pay off your debt.
#2 Interest Growth
It doesn’t stop with your minimum payments, though. Along with this, a lot of credit cards run special deals which mean they become more expensive over time.
This means that your debt will grow as you’re trying to pay it off, and this makes the whole thing even more challenging.
To ensure that people keep their credit for as long as possible, companies will often make their minimum payments lower than their interest rates. This means that your balance will grow far faster than it will go down.
#3 Simple Human Nature
People are predictable creatures, often following the same route as one another when it comes to issues like debt, and this is something credit card companies will prey upon.
They know that people find it hard to pay the debt over spending money on things they like, and this gives them the ability to make a very small loan into something which will last the customer for their entire life.
Of course, not every company is like this, and websites like cardguru can help you to find options which won’t be quite so punishing. As time goes on, though, you need to make sure that you’re always on top of your debt.
Credit cards can be very useful tools when they are used correctly. A lot of people find it hard to know what to do when they are working with a product like this, struggling to understand how their balance will change over time. If you don’t know how something like this works, though, it’s probably best to do some learning and avoid it until you do.
What are you doing to eliminate credit cards forever?
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