credit cards
By reulin
@reulin (101)
Philippines
January 29, 2011 9:27am CST
who among you uses credit cards? how was it? when do you use it? how many cards do you have? how do you pay your bills, do you pay it immediately after you purchase something, or you wait for your billing statement and then you pay for it? have you experience to have late fee charges? how do you handle such thing? are you protected by a law with regards to credits? what if time comes that you can't pay for your debts? what do you do? what if, you have more than enough money to pay for the current and next due balance? where do you pay your debts, is it thru online, or thru checque or by phone? which is more convenient? can we use this to pay our kids tuition fees? except of course, i know most of the card holders would use this in paying electric bills, phone bills, water bills and other expenses that you made on a day? can you tell me more about this, coz i want to get one, but i am afraid to be in severe debts like some of the people i know who uses credit cards. I appreciate whatever answers, suggestions, comments and ideas that you could share for people like me who wanted to have a credit card, thanks guys...!
1 response
@hexebella (1136)
• Philippines
29 Jan 11
I started using credit card during my early 20's and since then i always see to it that i pay all my bills on the due date. Those days there were no reward points unlike today so what I'm doing even I have cash, i will use my credit card to earn points then I will pay the same amount to the credit card company so when the bill comes it would automatically be deducted from my amount due. But you have the option to set aside the money and pay the due when the bill comes. I always pay all my amount due on the due date as you would be charged with late charges fees if not paid on time. Also if the whole amount is not paid though it is acceptable as long as the minimum amount due is met, there will be interest charges, a certain percentage from the original amount due and not from the unpaid balance. For example, one time i tried not to pay the total amount due which was Php 12k something, I only paid Php10k leaving Php 2k+, I got billed with interest charges of more then Php800. The bank is computing the interest charges not from the unpaid balance but from the total amount due. Furhtermore, you have to manage your purchases. Do not charge to your credit card more than you can afford to pay at a certain billing cycle. For example, my credit card statement cut off date is every 15th of the month. To date i already charged almost Php26k which will be billed on 15th Feb to be paid on the 5th of March. Although I need to buy more stuff, i am delaying the purchase until 16th Feb so it will not be included in my statement on 15th Feb, it will be billed to me on the next billing cycle.
Credit cards are helpful in emergrncy cases especially when you are traveling. It is some form of a security that if you ran out of cash in a foreign country, you have something to use.
