Outsmart Credit Card Companies

Some tips and tricks to remind myself to clear off my debt in 2017:-

Never Carry A Balance

This is the holy grail of credit card use. As long as you pay your balance on time and in full every month, you will never pay a dime in interest or fees. Better yet, you will be earning interest on the cash you held onto from the time you make your purchase, to the time your statement becomes due. That's up to 50 days in interest gains.

Keep A Clean Card

Let's say that you are unable to pay your balance in full every month, but you are steadily reducing your total debt. You'd like to be able to take advantage of the perks credit cards have to offer, but you don't want to increase your debt load. 

If you only have one card to begin with, and are already in debt, you should focus on paying that card off before opening any new accounts. However, if you have more than one credit card, there is a way to continue to pay down your existing debt without incurring interest on new purchases.

The key is to keep one card "clean" by paying its balance in full every month. As stated above, when you pay a card off each billing cycle, you avoid paying any interest or fees. This is not so if you continue to charge new purchases to cards that are already carrying a balance. When you carry a balance on your card, you incur interest on all new charges to that card at the moment of purchase.

Thus, as long as you pay the balance of the "clean" card in full every month, you can use it without worrying about incurring interest on your purchases. Just make sure that you never spend more on the "clean" card than you can easily pay in full, while paying more than the minimum on your cards that carry a balance.

Know Your Statement Closing Date

If you pay your balance in full every month, you are getting a free loan from your bank from the time of purchase to the due date for that payment cycle. As a result, if you make a purchase a day before your cycle closing date, you will have 21 days to pay before incurring interest. Complete a transaction after the cycle closes and you will have an additional month until the next cycle closes, plus another 21 days to pay off your balance.

When you get towards the end of your cycle, it pays off to hold off on major purchases. By delaying your spending just a few days, you can gain an additional month of time until your payment is due.