So what’s the real deal about credit cards? We know that they can actually eat away at your finances due to all of the charges, fees and interest rates.
But what if you’re one of the better credit card users who escape certain fees and interest rates by paying the full amount on your statement every month? Do you still lose out on money? Chances are, you do. The yearly membership fee is one expense that you have to deal with and there maybe other fees that they can sneak up on you.
Still, you need not deal with such a fee. For the past year, I’ve been monitoring my use of the credit card and amazingly, I was able to break even on everything. That means I didn’t pay a single cent more than the things I purchased. Here’s what I did to “break even” with my credit card.
1. Use it only when buying items where prices for both cash and card purchases are the same. There are times when you would be able to ask for discounts on cash purchases since you take away the burden of the interchange fee from the store so they’re just happy to give you a part of it back as discount. But there are times when you don’t. I make sure that I only whip out my card when buying groceries or in restaurants.
2. Pay full and on time. Oftentimes, credit card companies impose fees to punish those who don’t pay. No need to expose myself to sky-high interest rates and late fees so I make sure that my statement is paid in full before the due date.
3. My credit card allows me to get points which I can redeem for rewards. I called up my credit card provider and asked if the accumulated points can be used to waive my yearly membership fee. Amazingly, they obliged. So they just docked my points and I didn’t even have to pay a single cent out of pocket.
By keeping to these three simple things, I was able to spend only on things that I actually bought and consumed. Did the credit card company make money? Yes, they did but not exactly from me but from the merchant. The real perks for my credit card use – I don’t have to carry that much cash around to buy stuff and my credit rating’s really good.
