Credit cards, whether you love them or hate them, it’s more than likely that we have at least one in our wallet. The thing is that if we were honest a lot of us don’t know all the ins and outs of using them to pay for things. In fact, there is quite a lot of info that isn’t common knowledge that can stop you getting into trouble with your credit, or help you when you have. Read on to find out more.
Insurance
I bet you didn’t know that you can get credit card insurance? It’s insurance you take out in case you can’t pay for some reason. Of course, no one wants to think that they will get into a situation where they won’t be able to keep up the repayments. A situation like illness or unemployment, but these things do happen. Obviously, if you are going through a traumatic situation like that, the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether you can make your credit card payments. So, if this is a concern, it can be helpful to look into this service, as then you will be protected even if the worst does occur.
Credit repair
Something else that you might not realize is that there are companies out there that specialize in helping you to repair and raise your credit score. Your credit score is a number comprised of three digits. Low scores are around 300 while good scores are at the 700 mark.
If you have missed payments, applied for too many loans, or had an error on your account, it can lower your score. Unfortunately, it’s this score that lenders look at when they decide to grant you future credit. Meaning the lower the number, the less likely you are to be accepted. That is where credit repair experts like repair.credit come in. They can help you establish why your score is so low and identify ways of raising it. Giving you a better chance in being accepted for loans and credit in future.
Always overpay
Did you know that whatever you do, you should always pay more than the minimum payment on your credit card? This is due to the reduction in interest charges you will make if you do so. See csmonitor.com for a more in-depth explanation. Although in a nutshell, what happens is the more you pay off now, the less the amount that the credit card company can charge you interest on. Meaning in the long term you can save yourself significant amounts of money.
Different APRs
Did you know that different companies offer differ APRs or annual percentage rates? Some even offer 0% for an introductory period.
Not only is this great if you are thinking of getting a card, but it can also be useful if you have credit card debt already. As you can transfer this to a 0% card like the ones suggested at thesimpledollar.com, and so save money.
You can even contact your current credit provider and ask them to lower your APR. This is something that very few folks know about, and it doesn’t work all the time. However, if you don’t ask you don’t get, so it’s definitely worth trying!
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