Lets get on the topic of credit cards. Either you love them or you have a strong livid passion to chop them up in a million little pieces. Well, we are here to change your perspective a little bit. Whether you are dealing with student loans or afraid of what your credit card scores may look like, here are 33 ways to optimize your chase credit card.
- Don’t view your credit card scores or report as the enemy. If anything these should be your best friend to make sure you are staying on track. The better the credit score, the lower the interest rate on items, the less you have to pay.
- Don’t jump at every opportunity to open a credit card. For instance, those already approved credit cards you get in the mail, avoid those. Also stay away from the credit cards that are offered from retail stores. The deals are usually not great and it causes to much clutter. Stick to only a couple cards so you can stay on track. Shoot for a credit card that can dish out an awesome reward.
- Pay off those bills. This is self explanatory. This is what will give you a bad credit score if you refuse to pay.
- A credit card life lesson, only purchase what you can pay for later. A lot of people get caught up in spending because they are not counting the cash out of hand. It is easy to add a dollar here and a dollar there but make sure you can pay those off when they start to add up.
- Choose a card that does not chalk you up with annual fees, or if you do make sure the rewards are well worth it.
- Always try and negotiate a lower interest rate on the credit card. Interest rates can eat you alive, it does not hurt to talk to the company issuing the card and see if they can work with you.
- Keep your credit cards active. If you manage to keep your cards going for a long time it looks great on your reports.
- If you can manage to pay off your bills in full every month, shoot for opening another card up. This will build up your credit utilisation rate.
- One way to totally optimize your credit card is to use the offers they are giving you. Take advantage of the perks you get.
- Avoid closing your account. Unless really necessary avoid closure at all costs.
- Don’t play the zero percent transfer game. This is a sure fire way to mess up your credit score.
- Prove that you are worthy of your credit. Maybe increasing your credit card limit is something you want to shoot for. Stay on top of everything and make all your payments. This is one of the first things a bank will look at.
- Always try and aim for the positive attention from your credit card companies.
- Always spend within your credit card limit. This will show that you are fully capable of being able to control your expenses. This is very reputable in the credit card world.
- Use your credit cards regularly. There are some cards that you have for emergency use and some that you use for everyday. The key is to use your cards regularly so that banks and see how well you are with pay-back and spending.
- Avoid late payments. This can not be stretched enough. Late payments can add a big fat red check mark on your statements. Always pay on time, if not in full then with the minimum they offer you to pay.
- Limit the number of inquiries you get. There are two types of inquiries the soft inquiry and the hard inquiry. Soft inquiries are okay because they won’t harm your score to much. These are things like your employer is just checking your credit history. Hard inquiries on the other hand can cause an impact on your credit score.
- Keep a mixture of credit accounts types. All in all there are about four different types you can get real estate loans, installment loans, credit cards, and retail cards.It’s not a bad idea to get a good mixture as long as you can pay them.
- Open at least one major credit card.
- This is simple, use your cards for things you were already going to buy. If you have rewards on your cards this is a great tip.
- Buy through the credit card affiliates. Most credit card companies work with their affiliates to give their customers deals. This can give you plenty of reward points by going through them.
- Activate your in store specials. Some credit card rewards programs have special promotions in store. Most of the time you have to activate them online.
- Pay your collection accounts. If you have any it is always important to pay these off as soon as possible without a letter of deletion.
- Sometimes making a large payment is worth it. Having a large payment can show that you are able to pay things off. This will give you a good report with your bank and credit card company.
- Shop around for the best credit terms you can get.
- Truly understand all the terms of agreement before you accept things like student loans and credit cards.
- Save money for emergencies instead of a card.
- Set yourself a monthly limit and stick to it month after month. This will keep you on track with any payments that may come your way.
- Shop as carefully with your credit card as you do with cash.
- Don’t take on monthly credit payments that you can’t pay for. This will only sink you deeper into a hole.
- Pay your payments promptly to avoid those high interest rate charges.
- Keep all your credit card information on hand. For instance make sure you have a safe place where you store your credit card number and information including the credit card companies number just in case your cards get stolen or lost.
- Keep an eye on your bills. Sometimes it truly is not your fault. Keep copies of all your receipts and make sure to have comparisons to look at when your statements come in the mail.
These are all great tips to follow but lets talk about tips in bulk now. For instance how to beat credit card companies at their own game. Lets face it we all feel like we are in a giant run around game when it comes to credit card companies. We buy things, pay them off, they make money off us, unless we don’t let them.
Credit card companies make a lot of money off of the people who let their interest rates get out of control. If you pay your monthly statements off promptly and on time you should never have to worry about those interest rates. This is why Indian people love negotiating, and are rather good at it. You can usually find away around things or cheaper if all you do is tell and ask what you want and expect.
There has always been a theory about how credit cards being able to make you rich that so many people would rather not believe whatsoever. The truth is the poor decisions people make is what gets them into debt with credit cards, causing them to become quote unquote “poor.”
In reality credit cards are a great way to be “rich.” You constantly have a cash flow as long as you are paying off what you have spent. You never have to worry about money if you stay on top of the commitments you made when you slide the card through the machine in the first place.
For some of us getting a credit card is hard to do because they have absolutely not credit history or no income coming in. With no income how do you plan on paying off the bills that are bound to come in? It all really depends on the type of credit card you are going for.
Now lets talk about dealing with those darn student loans that everyone is burdened with for years after they have already completed school. Loans are not cheap, we all know this. Loans in themselves have a serious way in effecting your credit all by themselves.
It is very important that you can manage to pay back all that money you borrowed to further your education. The biggest warning that anyone can give a student is to not use your credit cards to pay for your loans. Not only will you still be in a world of debt not with the loan company but with the credit card company, you will have interest through the roof.
Think about it this way, you are charging over the normal amount of money on a card that you can’t pay off otherwise, you are sinking yourself under. Stick to paying the loans straight forward.