My New Credit Card

Credit cards can be excellent money management tools for organizing and paying monthly living expenses, especially when used properly. Aside from the obvious benefits, such as being able to repay the monthly expenses over the course of a year in small increments, using credit cards to pay recurring bills carries a number of other advantages as well. Consider the following three reasons to use credit cards for monthly expenses.

Establishing and Maintaining a Budget

Although it is possible to design a comprehensive monthly budget which can be adhered to using cash, debit, checks and other basic payment methods, using a credit card will provide simplified expenditure monitoring and recording which can greatly enhance the accounting process. By having access to all of the details which pertain to all of the transactions conducted during the monthly cycle within a centralized online banking interface, it is possible to effectively maintain and revise a sustainable budget month after month.

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Large supermarkets, for example, will be able to negotiate smaller merchant fees due to the number of transactions processed. Plus, credit card payments cost more to process than debit card payments, due to the costs associated with borrowing. There may also be extra security costs borne by the retailer in processing online card transactions.

The UK Payments Administration (UKPA) said the typical charge to process a credit card payment would be between 1pc and 2.5pc. For debit cards the actual cost is likely to be closer to 10p. It said that there seemed little justification for companies charging a credit card fee “per item” bought, rather than per transaction. Ryanair and bmibaby charge card fees per passenger per flight, even if all these seats are made in one credit card booking. Likewise, most ticket agencies levy a card charge per ticket.

A spokesman for the UKPA said: “The credit card costs are per transaction. If you are booking six tickets at once, or one ticket in one credit card booking, the processing costs would be the same. It’s

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We can’t all be Robert Kiyosaki (“your strategy is all wrong; buy my book”) but nothing can stop you from using the money you have to its fullest potential. I’d do what my favorite advisor, Tim Gunn, always says: “Make it work!”

Opt for investments that provide fair returns

Nothing is worse than having another person profit from money you gave them to invest. Sadly, that’s precisely what’s happening if your money is languishing in CDs (certificates of deposit), savings accounts or money market funds!

These financial institutions are effectively borrowing from you, loaning/investing it elsewhere, and waxing fat on the difference. If you want your money to earn its keep, so to speak, conservative dividend stocks are a viable alternative; there are a number of companies that pay out annual yields of up to 9 per cent. You could say their tag-line, if they had one, would read “no flash, all cash”. Or something like t

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The majority of credit card offers sent out in the mail today promise a 0% APR (annual percentage rate) introductory period which lasts anywhere from three months to a year, depending on the credit score of the potential applicant, the credit card issuer and the specific terms of the product on offer. Interest-free introductory periods can be used to repay existing outstanding balances without incurring additional interest charges and they can also be used to save money on new purchases. The following information discusses several ways 0% APR credit cards can help to save money on existing balances and new purchases.

0% APR Credit Cards for New Purchases

The amount of money which can be spent on new purchases during an introductory period, without incurring interest charges, depends on a variety of factors like the introductory period and the overall credit limit available to the cardholder.

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